A communication member of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) says that he fully supports the energy ministry’s move to set up an eight-member investigative committee to look into the five (5) million litres of off-sec fuel from the Accra Plains Depot of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company.
According to Mr. Charles Owusu, it is the right call by the energy ministry, adding that the committee will help address the puzzles in the contaminated oil saga, and also make recommendations to prevent its recurrence.
Mr. Owusu made these observations in an interview with Today at the weekend.
He said there were more questions than answers to the whole issue, hence the need for the committee to begin its work “as soon as possible.”
However, he said it was regrettable that the issue has become partisan, with the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) dabbling in it and “as usual playing the blame-game.
This, he said, was not helping matters, noting that “in the long-run it is the state and the people of Ghana who will suffer.”
“In fact, the on-going blame-game between the NPP and the NDC is not right, and certainly not the way to go about this serious national issue, which continues to cost the nation huge sums of money, almost on a yearly basis,” he averred.
In this regard, Mr. Owusu suggested that mechanisms be put in place to prevent the recurrence of this problem, insisting that finality will only be brought to this matter if we allow the commission of enquiry, comprising experts, to investigate the issue and make recommendations.”
He went on to add that a permanent solution should be found to this problem, rather than just discussing it on radio platforms.
Furthermore, the PPP communicator indicated that there was no justification for what is wrong, advising the NPP to refrain from making comparisons with what happened during the Mahama era.
“The fact that almost about 12 million litres of contaminated oil was reported last year during the Mahama administration does not mean what has happened now is right. In fact, even if its 1,000 litres it is still wrong. What was wrong yesterday cannot be right today,” he emphasised.
In the estimation of Mr. Owusu, the Akufo-Addo administration will do Ghanaians a great service if the investigative committee is given the green light to work, whose recommendations will certainly prevent a recurrence.
Additionally, Mr. Owusu indicated that stiffer punishment should be meted out to anyone who will be found culpable in this matter by the committee.
He explained that the reason why public officials who have misappropriated state funds but have been left to walk free was that “the state has often failed to prosecute such persons.”
“I will strongly submit that any person who the committee finds to have benefitted from this saga must immediately be prosecuted and those who the committee recommends to be dismissed must not be entertained at all,” he submitted.
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