BNI report on BOST saga ‘untidy’ – Kweku Baako

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and National Security may have cleared the Managing Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Company (BOST), Alfred Obeng of any wrongdoing in the controversial sale of five million litres of off-spec fuel but most Ghanaians, especially members of the opposition NDC believes there is more to the report than meets the eye.

The MD came under attack over the decision to sell five million litres of contaminated fuel to Movenpiina, a company said to have been incorporated barely a month after it negotiated the deal with BOST without NPA license.

Meanwhile, the eight member committee tasked by the Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko to look into the issue is yet to come out with its findings.

The managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kweku Baako does not understand why the BNI did not include their findings to the committee’s work so that there will be one report especially as there is a representative of the BNI on the committee.

“They should have allowed the committee to do its job…the committee had a representative of BNI and so I thought whatever they had they would have input it to the committee set by the minister. It makes everything untidy…” he indicated during a panel discussion on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, Wednesday.

Background

BOST had been in the news for selling 5 million litres of contaminated fuel to two unlicensed companies, Movepiina and Zup Oil, which were allegedly set up few days before the sale making Ghana lose about GHc 7 million in revenue.

The NPA after complaining that it had not licensed the two firms, threatened to take legal action against the companies while investigations continue into the matter.

The Ministry of Energy subsequently set up an eight-member committee to investigate the issue.

The Committee which was made up of representatives of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and others were tasked to look into the circumstances that led to the contamination of the fuel and review the procedures undertaken by BOST to evacuate the product and ascertain the quality and remaining quantity of the product.

The Minority and Majority Members of Parliament also waded into the controversy taking divergent positions.

Whereas the Minority called for the appointment termination of the current Managing Director of BOST, Alfred Obeng Boateng, the Majority demanded a full scale investigation into the matter beginning from the era of the former BOST boss, Kingsley Kwame Awuah-Darko.