PIAC demands checks on GNPC’s expenses

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has raised concerns about the need to review the mandate and performance of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

PIAC made this recommendation in its 2019 half-year report.

According to the chairman of PIAC, Noble Wadzah, although the GNPC has been operating as the nation’s oil company for the past 10 years, it seems to be preoccupied with non-core mandate expenditures.

This, he believes, is detrimental to the national oil company’s main functions.

PIAC has over the period asked parliament to put a cap on the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation’s (GNPC) Corporate Social Investment. The call stems out of fears that GNPC may veer off its core mandate if it continues with its current expenditure trends.

Past spending

In 2019, an internal memo sighted by Citi News showed that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) had intended to spend about GH¢ 2 million on donations and sponsoring some public functions.

The First Lady’s Foundation and the Ghana Journalists Association were sighted as beneficiaries in the memo. Another amount was also allocated for the celebration of Okyenhene’s 20th Anniversary.

The memo, dated 29th October 2019 from the Board Secretary to the Chief Executive, indicated that the donations and sponsorship had been approved by the GNPC board upon a recommendation by the Brand, Communication and CSR Committee of GNPC.

Although the current budget of GNPC still comes as alarming to some organizations such as PIAC, parliament had already slashed the initial expenditure budget of the Corporation by 80 million dollars, saying that there was no justification for some of the projects captured in the 2019 budget of the firm.

In 2018 alone, GNPC spent 28 million dollars on CSR which is more than the 25 million dollars it spent on salaries and 17 million dollars it spent on some operational activities.