Myth surrounding sale of drill ship deepens

The sale of the drill ship belonging to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) took a dramatic turn when the Attorney General’s Department on Tuesday said it could not trace documents covering the sale.

“We are unable to locate files. We are still looking for the documents,” Mrs Dorothy Afriyie Ansah, Chief State Attorney, told the Judgment Debt Commission in Accra.

Nana Boakye Asafo-Adjaye, Chief Executive Officer of GNPC, said in 1999 Societe Generale (SG) sued the Corporation and the Attorney General’s Department asked to be given all the documents in their possession concerning the case.

He said he could not determine whether all the documents requested were provided leading to the payment of the judgment debt.

Nana Asafo-Adjaye said prior to the payment of the judgment debt, GNPC was using Bindman and Partners as their legal representation in court, but the then Attorney General asked that the matter be handed over to the Attorney General’s Department.

He said after the handing over, there was no legal representation for GNPC in court, leading to loss of the case by the Corporation hence the payment of the Judgment debt.

He said the GNPC contested the claims of SG based on the fact that it was SG that gave "negligent advice" to the Corporation to hedge its anticipated production of oil and gas from the Tano Fields.

Mr Justice Yaw Appau, Commissioner of Judgment Debt Commission, asked the Attorney General to write to the court in London for the documents to help unravel the circumstances surrounding the drill ship episode.

He said Mr Kobina T. Hammond, Mr Kan. Dapaah and MrTsatsu Tsikata would all appear to testify before the Commission about the transaction concerning the drill ship.

The Discover 511 was sold for 24 million dollars by the Energy Ministry to defray a Judgment debt of 19.5 million dollars to Societe Generale as ordered by a high court in London.

An official document written by the Ministry of Energy to GNPC on the sale of the Discover 511 showed that balance from the sale of the Discover 511 was 4.5 million dollars, legal fees paid stood at one million dollars and the balance paid to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning was 3.5 million dollars with nine million dollars paid into Escrow Account.