After several weeks of being the subject of discussion in the Ghanaian media space over its planned partnership deal with state-owned Tema Oil Refinery, the embattled private entity, Tema Energy and Processing Limited, formerly Torentco Assets Management Limited has shockingly announced its withdrawal from the partnership.
The firm did not walk out of the proposed partnership without letting Ghanaians know who is behind their troubles as they pointed accusing fingers at the country’s Minister for Energy Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh as the person behind their troubles.
In a statement by the Board of Tema Energy and Processing Limited which narrated how they became part of the entities that submitted proposals for selection as a strategic partner for the revamping of ailing Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), it said the leadership of General Transport Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) approached their partner in the person of Mr Asante Berko, a former Managing Director of the refinery, to assist to revive the refinery since it was sinking.
The TEPL Board said when the current TOR Board was constituted there were two proposals and alleged that the Minister wanted the TOR management and Board to work with the proposal from the two and not them.
“The Minister of Energy who was expecting the other 2 proposals to be rubber stamped, formally wrote to the board to suspend looking at other proposals and bring everything to his office for approval,” TEPL Board said.
It added that “the pace at which we had moved we suspect has unnerved people and right on cue has led to a wave of recent attacks.”
“We always suspected that the Minister of Energy was using the leadership of GTPWU as his “umkhonto ithiphu”(it means spearhead an attack or campaign in Zulu language)but it is shocking that venerable institutions such as the Attorney General’s office and OSP can be pulled into it,” TEPL stated.
“Fighting the state to do a complex transaction that revolves around reviving a moribund asset is tiring and unfortunately we are no longer interested. We wish you luck in pursuing the process with one of the many lucrative offers.
“As to the question of whether we lacked capacity, all one had to do was wait for us to perform within the 60 days windows and their fears would have been confirmed, alas, I suspect they were afraid of the answer and so could not take a chance,” the statement asserted.
Troubling as it was, your management approached transaction counsel to do a due diligence report on the shell company knowing very well and ignoring the deal structure was not complete and then passing out the draft report to unauthorized individuals for the sole aim of misrepresenting what our proposal was. If we did not have intimate knowledge of your balance sheet this among other breaches of the NDA we have signed and will warrant a lawsuit, the board said.
The statement continued that “It was not lost on us that the moment we concluded in signing the key bloc of the transaction, which was a Processing Agreement, the first scale of media attacks started, with all sort of wild accusations. Journalists started calling to accuse us of doing a “bad deal” which after a minute of discussion realized that they knew nothing of what they spoke of.”
“We advised the management and Board to treat our proposal as an academic exercise and do what the Minister wants but to the credit of Jerry Hinson he wanted to discharge his duties (then) with the level of seriousness that it deserved,” TEPL said in their letter to the acting Managing Director of TOR Daniel Osei Appiah.
Recently, General Transport Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union (GTPCWU) petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate TOR -Torentco transaction because it lacks transparency.
The Union also noted that the company in question lacks competence and finance capacity to enter into lease agreement with TOR.
In response to the petition, the Special Prosecutor directed Management of TOR to suspend the transaction noting that it has commenced investigation into the deal.
Few days afterwards, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, also in a letter made a damming opinion on the deal stating the compact lacks competence and financial capacity to take over the running of the state owned refinery.
His opinion was based on due diligence report on the deal commissioned by management of TOR.
“From the DDR, TAML has no financial and technical capacity to undertake the proposed transaction.”
“TAML has no established affiliation with Vitol or with any other company, which has the needed funds and technical capacity to undertake the Proposed Lease Transaction and without whose support TAML lacks the financial and technical capacity to undertake its obligation under the Proposed Lease Transaction,” it stated.
The Ministry further indicated that the TAML lacked the requisite licenses and documentation to undertake the proposed lease transaction, proceeding with the project would therefore be contrary to the law.
Below are letters from OSP, Attorney-General and Tema Energy and Processing Limited.
TERMINATION LETTER TOR-2_231129_165025
Attorney General Letter-TOR-15 Nov 2023
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com