The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) wants Parliament to restrict the proportion of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation’s (GNPC) budget on Corporate Social Investments CSI and guarantees to state institutions, particularly in the light of the Corporations inability to respond to some of its cash calls.
PIAC in its annual report for the year 2019 on the management and use of petroleum revenues indicated that the GNPC continues to provide guarantees for a range of state owned enterprises, amounting to 645.5 million dollars in 2019.
This is about double compared with previous years’ and also outweighs the Corporation’s total equity financing expenditure of 164.79 million dollars.
Speaking on the matter on the Atlantic wave on Friday, Chairman for the committee Mr. Noble Wadzah said PIAC’s call is to ensure that the Corporation does not neglect its core mandate for which it was established.
“GNPC should apply some breaks on its corporate social responsibility in terms of the amounts it spends. We are not suggesting in any way that corporate social responsibility is not good but we should understand that GNPC has been created with a certain mind set to become an oil company that works to the benefit of Ghanaians , an oil company that is experienced in such a way that can got out there and explore in other waters” he explained.
According to Mr Wadzah, the focus of the Corporation should be directed more to investments into the oil sector but “GNPC appears to be more happy in dishing out projects in communities and not meeting their cash calls.”
“We say so also because , we would be creating an oil company which is supposed to be in business but would now be seen as PR for governments, in terms that if GNPC builds a school it is easy for people to assume it is from government, hence creating a parallel government in disguise” he explained.
The committee among its recommendations has called on government, to as a matter of urgency, address the unsustainable debt of Ghana National Gas Company – GNGC. It reported that in 2019, GNPC supplied 334.6 million worth of raw gas to GNGC but no payment was received in respect of supplies.
This was largely on account of VRA’s inability to pay GNGC for the lean gas supplied which added to the outstanding balance of 335.5 million dollars, bringing the total indebtedness in respect of lean gas supply to 668.1 million dollars.
PIAC is calling on government to expedite action on infrastructure requirement for gas evacuation and utilization, in order to avoid huge backlog of make-up gas volumes and potentials for resource waste.
Notable among PIAC’s remommbedation is, it has urged Parliament to bring its oversight mandate to bear on the Ministry of Finance’s impunity and failure in not accounting for unutilized GH₵1. 5 billion funds in the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) for 2019.
Whereas the total ABFA for last year was around GH¢ 2.7 billion, the report said GH₵1.2 billion was utilized while the remaining GH₵1.5 billion cannot be accounted.
Meanwhile Mr. Wadzah said on radio that the Ministry has given an indication of responding to this in the yet to be delivered Mid-Year budget review. The ministry has also served the committee with a letter purporting to contain answers to the unaccounted GH₵1.5 billion but the committee is yet to sit on it
Source: Joseph Kobina Amuah/ATLFMNEWS.
