The Board of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has expressed disappointment with the General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana concerning their allegations concerning the proposed lease transaction between Torentco Asset Management Limited and TOR.
The Board in a statement said the callous allegations are completely without merit.
"The Board is saddened and disappointed by the precipitous action taken by the leaders of the GTPCWU both nationally and at TOR who have taken it upon themselves to jump to baseless and, frankly, insulting conclusions without engaging management or the Board to ascertain the facts.”
“It is unclear what has motivated such behaviour by the leaders of GTPCWU, but the board and management will conduct an internal process to understand and deal with this. They continue to express concerns about the impact of the lease on the rights of the workers, but even this has not been articulated.”
According to the board, the majority of TOR workers are in favour of the deal but for a few others whose "callous allegations are complete without merit and thoroughly refuted by the board.”
This follows the submission of a Due Diligence Report (DDR) for a reassessment of Torentco’s credibility by GTPCWU to the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the lease agreement.
The Transport Workers Union believes “the actions of the individuals behind Tema Energy and Processing Limited seek to induce workers of TOR with 20% of its shares through misrepresentation of workers in an entity by the name “TOR Workers Charity Trust” that never existed nor heard of at TOR, apart from the five individual directors and direct beneficiaries of this trust.”
They expressed fear that the country might be shortchanged because the Board of Directors of TOR has been compromised in the deal.
The OSP, therefore, directed the management of TOR to suspend its proposed partnership agreement with TEPL.
The OSP, in a letter dated November 21, 2023, and addressed to the Managing Director of TOR, Daniel Osei Appiah, said, “It has commenced an analysis of the risk of corruption in respect of the proposed partnership.”
“You are directed to immediately suspend the proposed partnership agreement, ongoing negotiations, operations and all other ancillary activities arising out of and consequent upon the proposed partnership agreement until you are otherwise advised by the Special Prosecutor.”
As such, the Board of TOR in a statement issued on Sunday said “The Board and management of TOR will avail to the OSP any and all documentation required, and we are certain that a better understanding of the issues and processes will allow for this important project to have a chance of being implemented.”
“The alternative would require that TOR continues its ongoing search for viable options in a very difficult market.”
