IMANI demands fresh probe into BOSTGATE

Policy think tank, IMANI Ghana has joined the calls for fresh investigations into the contaminated fuel saga at the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation.

Commenting on an open letter sent to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday asking for fresh investigations into the saga, the President of Imani said it was obvious the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) was kept in the dark about the BOST, Movenpiina and ZUP OIL deal.

Read also: BOSTGATE: Open letter to Akufo-Addo on how to clamp down 'scandulous' contamination deals

Below is IMANI’s statement of support for fresh enquiry into the fuel saga

Sadly, there are inconsistencies in the accounts of the energy ministry, the National Petroleum Authority and the state owned bulk oil storage company, BOST, over the fuel fraud saga. The attached open letter addressed to the President and also sent to me anonymously, gives some rather damning reasons for chain of errors.

What is clear from the varied accounts we have so far is that;

1. The regulator, the NPA, was kept in the dark about the shady deal until very very late in the day so its account for the most part, unfortunately does not count.

2. Close to 300,000 litres of deliberately contaminated fuel had been released onto the market and all relevant authorities in the trade are aware of it.

3. That the companies involved have no licenses and mandate to operate in the trade, illegal trade actually.

4. This whole saga is the clearest example yet of bastardisation of our institutions by politicians. How a supposedly competent committee set up by the energy ministry got railroaded and trumped over by the

BNI baffles all observers of our democracy. At worse, were the BNI justified to intervene, their conclusions are at best juvenile and delinquent.

5. This whole mockery of governance can be made clean again by a singular act of the President- fresh inquiry into the activities of BOST in the last 8 years and all persons liable for fuel fraud be held accountable. But we want immediate answers to the present fraud. It is simply early in the day for a new government with boundless optimism.