GH¢720m from TOR Recovery Levy Missing?

Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, has asked the government to check from the Bank of Ghana, or the Controller and Accountant-General's Department to find out how the Tema Oil Refinery Recovery Levy was used by the previous government.

"This issue is very simple, and needs not be debated because there is a way for the government to find out how the money was expended," he stated.

Dr. Akoto Osei was speaking in an interview with The Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday, in reaction to a statement by the Minister of Energy that the previous administration had made about GH¢720 million from the TOR Recovery Levy but there were no records to show how the money was spent.

He said one other avenue where the government could check how much was realised from levy was the Auditor-General’s Department which is responsible for auditing government accounts.

The former Minister, however, could not tell exactly how much the previous government had realised from the TOR Recovery Levy, explaining that "the TOR Recovery Levy revenue was affected by the adjustment in fuel prices due to price instability on the international market."

He said: "As far as we are concerned, we have used judiciously the money accrued from the TOR Recovery Levy."

When contacted, Dr. K.K. Sarpong, Chief Executive Officer of TOR, said his outfit only distributes petroleum products to the oil marketing companies and does not collect the TOR Recovery Levy on behalf of the government.

"I can only give out the volume of sales by TOR but not how much revenue accrues to the government," he added.

He said that checks could be made at the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service which is responsible for collecting the levy on behalf of government.