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A Deputy Energy Minister has dismissed claims by the Minority in Parliament that the eight member committee set up to investigate the controversial oil contamination saga has been dissolved.
Dr Amin Adam, said the membership of the committee and its terms of reference still stand as was announced last week.
He was responding to the members of the Minority in Parliament who have cast doubt on the latest BNI report which exonerated the boss of BOST, Alfred Obeng.
The Minority was in no mood to accept the findings of the BNI report. Its leader Haruna Iddrisu said the report is nothing more than a cover-up of the circumstances surrounding the contamination of almost 5 million liters of fuel.
He alleged that based on the BNI findings a committee set up to investigate the oil contamination will be suspended.
The ranking member of the Mines and Energy Committee Adams Mutawakilu said the BNI findings is only to make the work of the committee “impotent.”
But in a reaction the Deputy Energy Minister said the Minority got it all wrong.
He said there were two issues that had to be solved in the wake of the oil contamination saga- a case of wrong doing by the boss of BOST and administrative procedures at BOST.
Dr Amin Adam said the BNI investigated the conduct of Alfred Obeng and found nothing untoward about his role in the contamination saga.
According to him, the oil was contaminated on January 18, a time when the BOST boss had not been appointed.
Once the conduct of Alfred Obeng has been settled, he said the eight member ministerial committee will then investigate the procedures at BOST, find out how the oil is contaminated and provide recommendations to avert future.
Joy News’ Evans Mensah found it very curious why the BOST boss will be cleared of all wrong doing when the NPA, the regulator has said the contaminated oil was sold to Movenpiina, an unlicensed company which was illegal.
In the defence of Mr Obeng the Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko gave a history of sale of contaminated oil and suggested that the offspec product had been sold to unlicensed companies in the past.
Evans Mensah asked the deputy Energy Minister why his boss would rather use precedence as his weapon of defence of Alfred Obeng instead of going according to what the law says.
But Amin Adam said the law is even silent on how to dispose off contaminated products and there is a need for a comprehensive report on the committee tasked to investigate the scandal.
Source: Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
