Minority Caucus in Parliament has called for the immediate interdiction of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company, Mr. Alfred Obeng Boateng, over the alleged sale of five (5) million litres of contaminated fuel.
According to the minority, the transaction between BOST and an unlicensed company, Movenpiina, was fraught with irregularities.
Addressing a news conference at the plush Job 600 building near Parliament House in Accra yesterday, Minority spokesperson on Mines and Energy, and a former Petroleum Minister, Mr. Armah Kofi-Buah, argued that “the justification by BOST that the contaminated products were sold for use by manufacturing companies is untenable.”
“The norm and practice is that when such contamination occurs, corrective treatment of these products is undertaken by the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) through blending. Why did BOST not arrange with TOR for the treatment of this particular fuel?” he asked.
According to him, available information at hand indicated that BOST failed to exhaust all means to ensure TOR blends this contaminated fuel.
“The argument by BOST that the blending couldn’t be done at TOR because the CDU is down is most untenable,” Mr. Kofi-Buah added.
He asked what led to the contamination of the product in the first instance.
“Why was the particular tank in question not properly discharged and cleaned before the intake of the fresh fuel which led to the contamination?” he further asked.
According to Mr. Kofi-Buah, what was more absurd about the sale of the product was the circumstances under which Movenpiina Company Ltd., was given the offer.
He further explained that Movenpiina Company Ltd., put in a proposal to purchase the fuel on the 19th May, 2017.
Interestingly, checks from the Registrar General Department, he said, revealed that the company was incorporated to trade and transport fuel on the 29th of May, 2017.
“This clearly suggests collusion on the part of the actors. Again, the CEO took a unilateral decision to grant Movenpiina an Open-Credit sales arrangement against all the advice from technical staff,” he indicated.
The minority, therefore, called on President Akufo-Addo to institute a full-scale investigation into the sale of the contaminated oil.
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