News:
March 23, 2018
Ranking member on Finance Cassiel Ato Forson, has expressed worry over Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) not focusing on their core mandate deviating from what is enshrine in the law for strange reasons.
According to the ranking member GNPC is going to spend $20 million for the purpose of building its head office in Accra despite the fact that they have an existing head office in Accra.
Again 13.4 million Ghana cedis is going to be used in renovating the current head office, whiles $10 million will be used in building operational office in Tarkoradi. The former deputy finance Minister pointed out that he grew up in the Western Region and does not believe a building will cause that amount.
He further revealed that GNPC will use $2 million to build transit office in Tarkoradi for staffs so that any time they are in Tarkoradi they will go and stay there as they pass by sleeping there.
GMPC is now building a clinic of $1.5 million and $24 million into gold mining, “GNPC is doing gold mining is it a mining company, GNPC is now a real estate company?”
They are buying fish vessels and building railways $45million dollars why, what is going on in this country, they are deviating from their core mandate this is bad and there is something that we need to do to stop government, he remarked.
Mr. Ato Forson recounted that this year’s budget approved 998 million Ghana cedis but GNPC is going to spend 4.5 billion Ghana cedis and out of this they are going to the capital market to borrow, it becomes a public debt because it is a contingent liability and GNPC is owned by Ghanaians and not individuals.
The current government criticized cocoa board for doing roads, strangely GNPC is going to spend 300 million Ghana cedis to build agriculture roads and you can find this in the budget statement for 2018 page 184, is this how to protect the public purse?
“I do not think so, somebody must tell them to behave and not to spoil public money like that, what GNPC needs to do is to intensify their activities in the petroleum in petroleum prospecting and not to go into the capital market to anyhow and spend anyhow, GNPC get more money and just waste it”.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com