The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has lost focus just as it did under Tsatsu Tsikata prior to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in 2001, a former Minister of Energy has observed.

Joseph Kofi Adda said the Corporation under Mr Tsikata sidestepped its core mandate by investing in other areas such as setting up banks and exploring salt “though salt can be used in the petrochemical industry,” he stated.

Mr Adda made this remark on TV3’s The Platform on Wednesday, March 4.

The second edition of the programme - which discusses socio-economic issues affecting the nation - was held at the Best Western Premier Hotel in Accra.

It was themed: “Ghana’s economy: Four Years After Oil Production”.

Speakers including IMANI-Ghana's Founding President, Franklin Cudjoe and a petroleum expert, Dr Thomas Kojo Stephens, accused GNPC, whose Director of Operations Thomas Manu failed to honour an invitation to appear on the programme, of failing Ghanaians in concealing the appropriation of oil revenues.

Mr Adda questioned why the Corporation will expend the oil revenues on football when the oil sector needed a boost of some sort.

“They have lost focus on their core mandate on the oil sector,” he accused.

He said it took the tact of Former President John Agyekum Kufuor to steer the Corporation back on track, advising the government to do so before things get worse.

But Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Moses Asaga, stated that all agreements reached by GNPC went through Parliament as demanded by law.

He dismissed the assertion that GNPC has lost focus, stressing that GNPC's action is not unusual as firms like AngloGold Ashanti and Volta River Authority (VRA) have engaged in non-core businesses.