The Minority in Parliament is demanding an immediate interdiction of the head of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) Company over the raging controversy about the contaminated fuel.
The group insists the circumstances under which 5million litres of fuel was contaminated and sold under bizarre circumstances to a new company is dubious and has led to a 14.25million financial loss to the state.
At a press conference, Tuesday, the spokesperson on Energy, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah wants Alfred Obeng probed and all the litres of contaminated fuel withdrawn from the market.
The call by the Minority follows a similar demand by energy think tank Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).
In what BOST has described as “human error” 5 million litres of oil was said to have been contaminated after diesel was mixed with Petrol.
This error, according to ACEP has caused the country over ?7million in revenue.
As if that is not enough, ACEP believes, the contaminated fuel was sold to a company, Movenpiina, under very bizarre circumstances and to worsen matters the contaminated fuel has ended up in the tanks and engines of consumers.
Executive Director of ACEP Ben Boakye claims to have, unknowingly, bought a contaminated fuel with the potential of damaging his engine.
It cannot be immediately ascertained if the contaminated fuel is the same one BOST sold to Movenpiina.
Meanwhile, officials at BOST have been vehement in denying that the contaminated oil has ended up onto the market.
Media Relations Manager at BOST Nana Akua Adubea Obeng said on Joy FM’s morning show programme, Tuesday, only 100,000 litres of the contaminated product has been released to Movenpiina.
According to her, the remaining 4.9 million litres is sitting in the tanks at BOST and waiting to be offloaded.
She also insisted that their tracking system has shown that 100,000 litres released so far to Movenpiina is still within the tanks of the company and has not been released onto the market.
But the Minority in Parliament is not impressed. Joy News’ Parliamentary correspondent Joseph Opoku Gakpo reported the Minority Spokesperson on Energy as saying the decision to sell the contaminated fuel to Movepiina was not only inappropriate but corrupt.
They do not understand why a contaminated product must be sold at all cost and to a new company, when such contaminated fuel is always given to Tema Oil Refinery for treatment.
“The justification by BOST that the contaminated products were sold for use by manufacturing companies is untenable. The norm and practice is that when contamination occur, corrective treatment of these products are undertaken by TOR through blending,” Armah Kofi Buah said at the press conference.
The Minority also stated there was no competitive bidding for the sale of the product to Movenpiina and accused the MD Albert Obeng of engaging in “high level corruption.”
The minority wants officials at BOST to be surcharged with the 14.25million, an amount it claims to be the estimated financial loss, officials of the company have caused to the state.
They also want a full scale investigation into the matter.
Source:Myjoyonline