Dirty Deals In Sale of Goil...World Bank is Angry

"Dirty Deals In Sale of Goil...World Bank is Angry ... Property Under Valued" is the banner headline on the front page of the Weekly Insight.

According to the story, the sale of the Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) on the orders of the International Monetary fund (IMF) has suffered a major set back. Well informed sources say the exercise has been suspended following allegations and counter allegations of corruption involving the under valuation of the company and non- compliance with standard World Bank directives.

To start with the evaluation of bids for the sale was given to an American company with Jewish connections- Rothschield which did not tender for the job. Rothschield is then said to have contracted a local consultancy company, Sterlin Consult to assist it with the evaluation of the bids.

The report says so far it is not clear how much Rothschield and Sterlin Consult have been paid for the evaluation of bids for the sale of Goil, but sources at the Divestiture Implementation Committee said the World Bank has refused to pick up the bill.

The World Bank insists that the contract for the evaluation of bids should have been open and that there is no justification for hand picking Rocthschield.

According to the paper following the refusal of the World Bank to pick up the bill, the Ministry of Finance has agreed to pay for the contract from Ghana's own resources. Rothschield appears to have run into trouble with TOTAL an American Oil Company, which has declared its interest in buying Goil for about $12million.

Sources at the Divesiture Implementation Committee (DIC) say that all the oil companies operating in Ghana including TOTAL and ENGEN submitted bids for the sale of Goil.