The Ministry of Energy has responded to what it calls the “sheer lies” peddled by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) over some claims it made against President Akufo-Addo and the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST).
This follows the National Democratic Congress (NDC launch of a platform on Monday, June,08 to expose misappropriation and embezzlement of state funds by officials of the Akufo-Addo government code-named “Corruption Tracker Series”.
The National Communication Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi who launched the platform in the capital, Accra on Monday [June 8, 2020] said the tracker will help Ghanaians appreciate how “the corrupt Akufo-Addo government is plundering the already constraint public purse of Ghana and the extent of damage this government has inflicted on all sectors of our nation.”
“As a responsible opposition with the responsibility of keeping government on its toes, the NDC is today embarking on a corruption tracker series to track the status of the countless cases of corruption we have witnessed under the Akufo-Addo government in the last three and half years. Scandals which have occasioned huge financial losses to the state and robbed Ghanaians of the developments they were promised in the year 2016,” he said.
He accused President Akufo-Addo of being the “leader and chief patron of this notoriously corrupt administration.”
Alleging some corruption scandals, recorded in the Akufo-Addo regime, Sammy Gyamfi zoomed in on the Bulk Oil and Storage Transport (BOST) saying it has been left with no strategic stocks of its own and literally borrowing to pay workers on the back of the rot that hit the state company.
“On the 18th of January 2017, five (5) million litres of fuel was contaminated at the premises of the state-owned Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) by the mixture of diesel and petrol, and sold to unlicensed companies namely, Movenpina and Zup Oil under dubious circumstances.”
“At all times material to this transaction, Movenpina Energy and Zup oil had not been licensed by the NPA to trade in petroleum products in the downstream petroleum sector of Ghana. The sale of the contaminated fuel to these unlicensed companies therefore breached sections 11 and 32 of the NPA Act (ACT 691) of 2005, hence unlawful. Again, the transaction did not go through any tender process in breach of Sections 16(2) (c), 40(1), 35, 83 and 84 of the Public Procurement Act (Act 663) of 2003.
He said, “The next NDC-Mahama government in 2021, shall investigate and prosecute all culprits who are involved in this stinking “BOSTGATE” corruption scandal,”
But Nana Damoah, Head of Communications at the Energy Ministry, in a reaction to the claims on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM said the Ministry is taken aback by the falsehood churned out by NDC’s Sammy Gyamfi.
“There is no iota of truth in whatever he said in relation to the so-called Movenpina-BOSTGATE scandal.”
“They alleged that we sold five million litres of contaminated fuel onto the Ghanaian market, it is not true. One million litres was what was sold.
“Indeed, it’s still fresh in our minds that the NDC government in 2015 and 2016, using BOST sold 200 million litres of contaminated fuel to 38 unlicensed companies, adding the former NDC government are the worst culprits, in respect of scandals at BOST.