Akufo-Addo Is ‘Chief Patron’ Of Corruption – NDC

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says President Akufo-Addo is the biggest enabler and promoter of corruption in his government.

Speaking at the launch of its Corruption Tracker Series at the NDC's second Weekly Press Briefing in Accra on Monday, the party's National Communications Officer, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, said despite promising to protect the public purse, President Akufo-Addo “is indeed the leader and chief patron of this notoriously corrupt administration”.

Mr Gyamfi recalled that on the 18th of January 2017, five million litres of fuel were 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 two unlicensed companies, Movenpina and Zup Oil, at the time, under questionable circumstances.

He said “at all times material to this transaction, Movenpina Energy and Zup Oil had not been licensed by the National Petroleum Authority 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”.

Mr Gyamfi added that the transaction was in breach of sections 16 (2) (c), 40 (1), 35, 83, and 84 of the Public Procurement Act (Act 663) of 2003 as it did not go through any tender process.

He said in spite of these facts, President Akufo-Addo mounted a robust defence for the then Managing Director of BOST, insisting that allegations of corruption against the MD were baseless.

This, Mr Gyamfi said, was after the Bureau of National Investigations and the NPA “had attempted to cover up the scandal by railroading the work of the committee that had been set up by the then Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko to investigate the matter.”

“Today we know that the committee tasked to investigate the Movenpina-Zup Oil contaminated fuel saga, has found that the transaction was criminal and that, the proceeds from the same has not been paid into the state coffers till date.”

“Indeed, the committee's report indicates that Movenpina has not paid BOST for the 471,000 litres sold through Zup Oil Limited. The committee also found out that thousands of litres of fuel, which was lodged in the tanks of the NPA could not be accounted for,” Mr Gyamfi said.

The NDC's National Communications Officer said despite President Akufo-Addo's anti-corruption campaign during the 2016 elections, he seems to have “normalised corruption” adding “he has defended and cleared his corrupt appointees of several grievous corrupt acts against the state such as the BOSTGATE scandal”.

Mr Gyamfi observed that BOST which was so efficiently managed such that for the first time in the history of the company it was able to trade with major international oil companies including British Petroleum (BP), Vitol, Trafigura amongst others, on an open credit supply system during the Mahama administration, a situation that helped to drive local fuel prices down in the year 2015 & 2016 even when world market prices dictated upward adjustments in fuel prices, has now become a pale shadow of itself.

“Also, at the time of exiting office in 2017, the NDC-Mahama government bequeathed to the Akufo-Addo government, 200,000 metrics tonnes of refined products valued at about GHS1 billion and 2 million barrels of crude (1 million barrels from the TEN fields and 1 million barrels of Qua-Iboe crude from Nigeria) valued at over US$100 million”, he said.

Mr Gyamfi said, “it is sad to note today, that as a result of the thievery and plundering of the resources of BOST in the last three and half years, the once profitable and buoyant state asset, which was a partner to several reputable multinational oil companies under the erstwhile NDC-Mahama government, has been completely run down by the Akufo-Addo government such that today, the company (BOST) has no strategic stocks of its own and is virtually borrowing to pay its workers”.

----citinewsroom