The President of IMANI Africa, has accused the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company of deliberately contaminating over 5 million litres of fuel.
Franklin Cudjoe says the whole process that led to the contamination of fuel and eventual sell out was intentionally orchestrated by some individuals to drain money from the state.
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC-GH) days ago accused the MD of BOST of selling contaminated fuel, know as off-spec, to two unlicensed companies, Movenpiina and Zup oil. The Chamber claims the oil was sold at prices well below market value and that it has found its way onto the market to be sold as petrol. COPEC consequently called for the suspension of the MD for investigations into the issue.
The off-spec was produced by the mixing of large quantities of petrol with diesel. BOST said this was done by mistake.
Preliminary investigations by the National Petroleum Authority revealed the two companies that lifted the oil did not have the license to do so. However it said there is no evidence that the product is on the market because the companies still had the products in their storage facilities.
The Ministry of Energy has constituted an 8-member committee to conduct further investigations into the sale.
However Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue today July 1, Franklin Cudjoe questioned why such a mistake could happen at BOST which has been storing oil for many decades. He maintained the circumstances smacks of the work of an organised syndicate.
Mr Cudjoe believes "somebody must have been engaged in this whole fuel fraud and somehow it needed to be offloaded and a company has been set up not properly incorporated and we have decided to reduce that value of whatever has been contaminated deliberately.â€
He wants investigations conducted into the entire issue, from what led to the contamination to how it was sold to unlicensed companies.