'Vitol was sneaked in at 11th hour to lift oil' - Dapaah

The Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the heat of last year's campaign towards the Presidential run- off awarded a contract to the Ghanaian representative office of VITOL, (Anglo-Swiss coy) to lift crude oil to Ghana from Nigeria, says The Chronicle.

The contract was awarded to VITOL on December 20, 2000, that is thirteen days after the first round general elections held on December 7, and at a time all attention was on political run-off. This was made known when the Energy Minister Albert Kan- Dapaah appeared before Parliament to answer questions in connection with the award of contract to Sahara Energy Resource Limited to lift crude oil to Ghana from Nigeria.

He made it known that contrary to speculations it was not a sole source contract awarded Sahara, saying "we examined proposals from two companies".

The second company that was also considered is VITOL, which claimed to have a lifting contract already with the TOR.

Kan-Dapaah mentioned that VITOL's contract with TOR signed on December 2000 was effected at a time when there was no allocation contract between the Government of Ghana and Nigeria. He said, in selecting VITOL the then Government of the NDC did not resort to competitive tenders. In selecting Sahara however, the Energy Minister hinted that Government considered its ability to undertake the assignment and furthermore, it was clear from discussions that their management fees would be much lower than that of VITOL.