Kufour's fiat won't deter us - Minority

The Minority Spokesman on Mines and Energy, Mr. Abraham Kofi Asante, has stated that the recent statement by President Kufour that he would not institute a probe into the Sahara oil contract as being demanded by the Minority would not stop them from commenting on the matter which is of interest to the State.

He said they would continue to hammer on the issue till they got to the bottom of it because they suspect that the whole contract looks fishy that was why the President came out that there would be no probe into the contract knowing very well that if such an action is taken, the deal surrounding it would be uncovered which would be an embarrassment to his government.

Mr. Kofi Asante, who was speaking at a press briefing organised by NDC parliamentary caucus in the Western Region in Takoradi, said they repeated it several times that the contract was not opened up to competitive bidding notwithstanding the fact that it was not approved by Parliament also.

According to him, the government in defence stated that the contract did not come to Parliament for approval because the deal was between Sahara and Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) which they saw as a complete lie because documents they have laid hands on reveal that the deal was struck between the Government of Ghana and the Sahara Oil Company.

If the contract was between TOR and Sahara, then the chief executive of TOR should have signed it on behalf of his company but not Kan-Dapaah who is the sector minister representing the government and people of Ghana, he said.

Flanked by Dr. John Abu, the former Minister of Mines and Energy in the NDC regime, Kofi Asante further said though the vessel hired by TOR to lift the oil from Nigeria to Tema has the capacity to carry 450 barrels in the contract, Sahara was only asked to lift 430 barrels and that if it exceeds that they would be given special incentives.

He said if the whole deal did not look fishy why should the terms of contract state that Sahara should supply 430 barrels and that if it exceeds that it could be given 'special' incentives when the vessel hired by TOR has the capacity to carry extra 20 barrels.

Kofi Asante also showed reporters who went to the briefing a letter purported to have been written by Kan-Dapaah to the Chief Executive of Sahara Oil Company in which he stated that they were looking forward to mutual co-operation between the two and wondered if the contract was not between the government and Sahara then what mutual co-operation was he expecting from between the government and Sahara Oil Company.

He expressed regret about the statement made by the President that there would be no probe into the whole contract at the time the NPP government is preaching zero tolerance for corruption.

According to him, if indeed the President and his sector minister believe that the whole deal was clean, then they must yield to the opposition's demand to probe the issue by an independent, non-partisan committee to prove them wrong.

The minority spokesman also called on the NPP government to consider reducing the ex-refinery price of petroleum products given the fact that the world market price of crude oil had fallen and the cedi/dollar exchange rate has appreciated favourably towards the cedi.

He said given the current situation of US$23.42 per barrel and the stable exchange rate, "we as a nation should be discussing price reduction and not an increase or even maintaining the current price levels", adding that the people are now paying over and above the full cost recovery being espoused by the government which in other words means TOR is being subsidised as at now by the ordinary people.

Dr. Frank Abu who spoke on the reconciliation bill currently before Parliament said though the NDC are not against it, they foresee that there is going to be weeping in the country if the bill comes into force because people are going to be reminded of what had happened in the past.

If these people do not get adequate compensation, we will see what will happen in the country, he said.