GNPC saga: Tsatsu lied in his statement – Osei-Owusu

A member of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee of Parliament Joseph Osei Owusu has said claims by former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) Tsatsu Tsikata that he was not paid his salary areas following his exit from the company in 2001 are false.

According to him, the famous lawyer left the state agency before 2001 and therefore was not supposed to draw salaries from the regulator.

Tsikata in a statement said: “After over 12 years of service to the Ghana National petroleum Commission as chief executive, even salary payments during the period when I was on leave in 2001 were not made to me. My entitlements to the provident fund were never paid- not even my own contributions. No end of service benefit of any sort were ever paid. A letter I wrote to the chairman of the board of directors was not answered”.

The statement was in reaction to claims by former deputy Energy Minister K.T Hammond that he has received an ex-gratia payment from the GNPC. He has subsequently sued the Adansi Asokwa MP over the claims.

But speaking to Nii Arday Clegg on the Morning Starr Monday, the Bekwai MP said Mr. Tsikata told a lot of untruths in his statement.

“As to the content of his letter, some details are not true to the best of my knowledge. If you recall, he (Tsikata) left GNPC before 2001 so the claim that his salaries were not paid when he was on leave in 2001 has no basis.

“...When he comes to say that he has not been paid, I find that strange because the GNPC board has issued a statement confirming that they have approved the payment as alleged by K.T Hammond,” he noted.

The GNPC confirmed in a statement that it indeed paid Tsikata and three others ex-gratia, but failed to mention figures.

“The Board of Directors of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), has approved the payment of ex-gratia to four former employees of the Corporation, comprising of two former Chief Executives and two Managers.

“The four and the positions at which they exited GNPC are: Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata (Chief Executive); Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye (Ag. Chief Executive); Mr. Benjamin Dagadu (Field Evaluation and Development Manager); and Ms. Esther Cobbah (Public Affairs Manager).

“The four served the Corporation for periods ranging between 12 and 21 years. They were all removed from office in 2001, under circumstances that did not allow for the payment of their respective accumulated separation entitlements,” the GNPC statement read.