NDC never sold 20m litres of contaminated fuel – Edward Bawa

Member of Parliament for Bongo constituency of the Upper East Region, Edward Bawa has denied claims by the Majority that Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) sold about 20million litres of contaminated fuel between 2014 and 2016.

According to Mr. Bawa, the last time fuel was contaminated at BOST, was December 2013 when Kwame Awuah Darko was Managing Director.

In that incident, BOST recorded only about 200,000 litres of contaminated fuel and even with that, “treatment was done at APD, (BOST)” for it to be corrected, the former Head of the Communications Unit of the Energy Ministry stated on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Wednesday, July 5, 2017.

The Minority in Parliament last week called for the interdiction of the BOST CEO Mr. Alfred Obeng Boateng, for supervising the sale of 5million litres of off-spec fuel to Movenpiina, a company not licensed by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA). The Minority had said the 5million litres of contaminated fuel should have been processed to restore it to good use instead of selling it off.




The Majority in a counter news conference, accused the former administration of selling about 20million litres off-spec products between 2014 and 2016, to companies that did not have any licenses from the NPA.
But Mr. Bawa has described the claim as “false.”

“The slop tank capacity at BOST [Accra, Kumasi, Buipe and Bolga] put together, is 450,000 maximum…We are disputing the fact that quantities of hydrocarbons at BOST were sold to the tune of 20million. It is part of the attempt to create a cocktail of confusion in the minds of Ghanaians that something like that happened. That is a lie” Mr. Bawa stated.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer at the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah is demanding proactive action from the NPA to check the lapses in the system and ensure the quality of fuel products sold to the public, is not compromised.

He said: “There is a cartel out there that is visible in operation…yet the NPA says it is not aware of them. So clearly there is some lapse that the NPA needs to look at”.

“How would NPA not know that 5million litres of contaminated fuel had left BOST?…So it means that a lot goes on to the blind side of the NPA”.

Contributing to the discussion, Member of Parliament for Sekondi, Andrew Mercer, asked the public to have confidence in the new committee constituted by the Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko to review operations at BOST.

“The committee that was constituted by the minister, as we speak now must be allowed to work and work properly. I don’t think that people should be worried,” Mr. Mercer assured.

Source: Myjoyonline.com