The Minority in Parliament has insisted that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation – Genser Energy Ghana Limited (GNPC-GENSER), dealing in its current form is biased toward other industry players.
Its insistence followed the publication of a Parliamentary Committee report on the deal which had to be investigated at the behest of the Minority.
The caucus has raised concern about the deal and called for an investigation into same.
Eleven months on, however, the Committee report gave a clean bill of health to the deal revealing that the country saved about US$1.5 billion from the GNPC-GENSER agreement.
Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, in a statement issued in Accra yesterday said an urgent review to ensure a level playing field for all industry players was required.
The statement said that the shifting of the agreement from Ghana Gas Company and the signing of the agreement by GNPC when Ghana Gas was supposed to be the gas transmission utility, discount given to GENSER by GNPC for the gas transmission agreement were wrong.
“The Minority believes that the issues are now appropriately presented before Parliament and demand thorough appraisal.
“It is, therefore, unfortunate that the Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee rushed with the report to the public domain while pending a new referral.
“Transparency and accountability should be the guiding principles in this process, and any premature public statements can potentially compromise the integrity of the new referral which is in the pipeline.”
Caucus members on the joint committee of Finance and Mines and Energy, he pledged would unravel all the flaws in the agreement to guarantee value for money.
“We take this position with a firm conviction that the heart and soul of Ghana’s future lies in our energy security and all the critical issues related to it, including transparent gas pricing.”
He said as someone who oversaw the establishment of Ghana Gas and the development of the country’s gas infrastructure and supervised the historic construction of ENI’s OCTP gas- power project as Energy Minister under President John Mahama, he would work to ensure that the flaws in the agreement were addressed.
These projects, he said have had a transformative impact on the country’s energy sector and that the NDC would not watch on for those gains to be derailed.
“The NDC minority is committed to upholding the interests of the people of Ghana and believes that we must strike the right balance between private enterprise and social benefit.”
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
