Minority in Parliament to launch Probe into alleged ‘missing oil’ at TOR
The Refinery was saved millions of dollars by restructuring its existing debt of $650 million which we inherited and reduced it by 300million dollars.
The Minority in Parliament has indicated that it will in the coming days’ institute a full-scale Parliamentary Probe into the missing TOR oil scandal.
It expressed disgust at the unexplained disappearance of 105,927 liters of Gas Oil, a wrongful loading of 252,000 liters of Aviation Turbine Kerosene, the disappearance of 18 drums of electrical cables, the disappearance of LPG, and loss of Naphtha.
According to them, they will not sit unconcerned for the only refinery in the country to be plunged into ‘comatose’.
“We are well aware of the cover-up in the BOST scandal and cannot, therefore, trust this government to conduct any fair, transparent, and unbiased investigation. We, therefore, wish to serve notice that we shall in the coming weeks, trigger the appropriate rules and processes for a full-scale parliamentary inquiry into this broad daylight thievery and embarrassing spectacle,” it noted.
“The Minority wishes to serve notice that it will not sit unconcerned for greedy and self-seeking Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government to plunge the only oil refinery in the country into comatose,” it added.
This is contained in a statement by the Minority Caucus in Parliament, signed by MP for Yapei Kusawgu and Ranking Member for Mines and Energy, John Abdulai Jinapor.
Additionally, TOR according to the Minority, has its standard operating procedures requiring the daily briefing to management on stock accounting and inventory, which confirms to management the total quantity and quality in their tanks and the identities of parties who own such stocks. It is therefore untenable to hear of such huge losses without any tangible explanation.
The statement further noted that before the NDC left office in January 2017, it had initiated and carried out the restructuring of the entire TOR operations. This according to them, saved the refinery millions of dollars.
“Prior to leaving office in January 2017, the NDC/Mahama government had initiated, implemented, and managed the restructuring of the entire refinery operations. In our quest to revamp the refinery, the NDC procured Nine (9) million barrels of crude to be refined including an indigenous crude from the TEN fields in Ghana,” The statement read in part.
“The Refinery was saved millions of dollars by restructuring its existing debt of $650 million which we inherited and reduced it by 300million dollars. This was done through the issuance of the Tema Oil Refinery Bond in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Petroleum to pay off four (4) Commercial Banks,” it indicated.
In conclusion, the statement bemoaned the turning of TOR into a Tank farm by the current Government.
“Indeed, it is becoming obvious that the refinery is gradually moving into a state of total collapse. This is why the current Government has proposed to turn it into a Tank farm,”
