The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has served notice that it will petition the Office of the Special Prosecutor to launch a forensic audit into the alleged sale of 1.8 million barrels of crude oil by the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) at a discount, leading to the loss of GH¢23million in revenue to the state.
At a press conference Monday, March 19, to announce the decision to petition the Martin Amidu led office, COPEC warned that any attempt to thwart efforts to probe BOST on the alleged shady transaction would be disastrous for the nation.
According to COPEC, the amount was lost from a transaction BOST had with BB Energy Company.
The current controversial transaction which occurred in September last year came months after a major scandal involving the sale of some five million litres of contaminated fuel.
Addressing the press conference, the Executive Director of COPEC, Duncan Amoah said, “There was some motivation for people to do what they did and for which we are asking for proper, thorough, forensic investigations to be conducted to unravel whatever these motivations were for selling at the time when world market prices are going up Ghana’s oil cheap.”
He continued “the issue of sale is not in contention, they have sold it. The issue of legality—who you sold to, does it have a legal backing to engage in an in-tan transaction? That’s is not in contention.”
“But we will want to see some prosecutions done in order to send a signal to other CEOs across [and] other people in positions that they should keep the nation’s property safe for all us…those are the issues and so we think that Mr Martin Amidu will be the right avenue,” he reiterated.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
