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The Office of Special Prosecutor in the Republic of Ghana has ordered managers of Ghana’s premier oil refinery, Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to immediately suspend the ongoing processes to lease the refinery to a recently formed private company Tema Energy and Processing Limited formerly Torentco Asset Management Company.
A letter signed by the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyabeng and addressed to Daniel Osei Appiah, the Acting Managing Director said the anti-corruption body has commenced an analysis of the risk of corruption in respect of the proposed partnership.
The letter directed the company to furnish the OSP with all relevant documents in connection with the proposed agreement by 5 December.
“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.”
“You are further directed to furnish the OSP with all necessary documents in respect of the proposed partnership agreement. This directive should be complied with on or before the close of business on Tuesday 5 December 2023,” the letter said.
The order follows a petition submitted by the umbrella body of transport, petroleum and chemical workers union in which they accused the Board of TOR and Management of side-stepping qualified entities and rather opting for a company with no track record to run the refinery.
The petition by the General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana dated October 19, 2023, narrated how Decimal Capital which was selected as strategic partner of TOR kept changing its name to Tema Energy and Processing Limited.
“We wish to request that your highly esteemed office investigates and intervenes in the ongoing lease arrangement of Tema Oil Refinery to Torentco Asset Management Limited, now Tema Energy and Processing Limited, with the same individuals involved.”
The Union argued that “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.”
The workers group noted that besides the due diligence report that described Torentco Asset Management Limited as not having the requisite capacity and credibility to undertake that which they sought to do, the report also established their lack of partners with the requisite capacity and credibility.
They expressed fear that the country might be short-changed because the Board of Directors of TOR has been compromised in the deal.
“We are tempted to believe the BoDs have been compromised to short-change the country, Ghana.
Otherwise, why will the BoDs be adamant in the face of all these red flags even when entities such as Falcon American Oil and Legacy Capital have also approached the management of TOR with very lucrative and compelling proposals, the BoD and Management have been resolute in ensuring that regardless of all the red flags, they will lease TOR to Torentco/TEPL for six (6) years.”
They added, “In the spirit and letter of the whistle-blowers’ Acts, we want to officially petition your outfit as our last option, having written to the Ministry of Energy, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy, SIGA, the Public Procurement Authority, the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General department and the Ministry of Finance for their respective intervention for the prevention of a possible replica of ECG/PDS scandal.”
Meanwhile, speaking to the acting Managing Director of TOR, Daniel Appiah via phone he explained that Torentco Asset Management Limited now Tema Energy Processing Limited put together a technical team to facilitate the leasing arrangement.
He said TOR Board has only approved the preparatory activities of the technical team of TEPL because of limited time explaining that there are conditions precedent which have to be fulfilled before the signing of the lease agreement.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
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