Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has served notice Energy Minister and the entire Cabinet of President Akufo-Addo, will in future, have questions to answer over their involvement in the AGM petroleum deal, which has widely been described as a “sham”, theheraldghana.com reports.
Alexander Kofi Mensah Mould, charged “Anybody who approved this has caused financial loss to the state. If anybody approves this, he is either useless and does not understand the basis of financing, or there is a benefit”, adding it is shocking that a deal that was rejected by former Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko and put before the same Cabinet, would be accepted by the new Minister and the same Cabinet without any basis.
According to Mr Mould, the action of John Peter Amewu and the Akufo-Addo Cabinet, to renegotiate the deal with the Norwegian oil firm, first signed in 2013, by reviewing downwards Ghana’s share from 49 percent to 18 percent, is something that should not be left unanswered.
“We should not let Cabinet out of this and we should not give Hon Amewu all the credit for doing all this bad deal, no!We cannot give him all the credit. The credit of doing this bad deal, lies at the highest level of approval in this country and that is Cabinet and we know that Cabinet represents the Presidency. So my question to them is, what information made them change the deal that many of us don’t understand that changed government’s 49 percent to 18 percent? I am puzzled”, Mr Mould said.
The former top official of Standard Chartered Bank in both New York and Ghana, described as “shameful”, the “accelerated”manner in which the deal was pushed through an emergency recall of Parliament and subsequent approval without due diligence.
Mr Mould, said this at a Public Forum on the $30 billion State capture in Ghana’s Oil industry, organized by the Caucus for Democratic Governance, Ghana (CDG-GH) on Tuesday in Accra.
The former GNPC CEO, bluntly said the deal could have only been passed by government officials, who know next to nothing, adding those people have “caused financial loss to the state”.
“The question is, anybody who knows an iota of finance in this country, and the Finance Minister he will not approve such a thing to happen. Anybody who approved this has caused financial loss to the state. If anybody approves this, he is either useless and does not understand the basis of financing, or there is a benefit. Now, I will leave the people of Ghana to decide what action should be taken”, he said.
He said, if Cabinet accepted Mr Amewu’s position, then it means he must have presented new information, which he insists does not exist.
“It’s very clear that before Boakye Agyarko, the former Minister approved or before he turned down the offer or the application of AGM, he must have gone through some process. And my understanding of government is like any organization, there is a board that approves what a Minister can do, that board is called Cabinet or you can have an Executive Order from the president. So most likely, Hon. Agyarko went to Cabinet, he made his case got approval and turned it down. Now the question is, another minister comes, I am sure he went to the same Cabinet almost of the same number of people and got approval to approve to this”.
Source: ghgossip.com
