Executive Director the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC Ghana) Duncan Amoah has blamed the challenges facing the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) on political machinations.
He said the system at BOST either corrupts or makes people who lead it to act wrongly in its operations.
“BOST is a bleeding entity and you will be lucky to have a leadership that is able to weather the storm. The sort of political machinations and the sort of games that we have played with this national strategic
“You have other players on the fringe who will not agree that you should transport stock that leaves BOST in dire state. So you may have people who are even good, the system will invariably, either destroy or corrupt them or get them to do the wrong thing,” he told Accra-based 3FM on Thursday August 12.
His comments come after the Auditor General’s report for the year ending 2020 has noted that cash management irregularities at the BOST and lack of prudent planning led to the loss of $5,129,170
The report stated that Regulation 78 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019, (L I. 2378) provides that a Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity is personally responsible for ensuring in respect of each payment of that covered entity, a) the validity, accuracy and legality of the claim for the payment; b) that evidence of services received, certificates for work done and any other supporting documents exists.
Contrarily, it said, BOST contracted America Tank and Vessel Inc. (AT&V) in July 2006 to supply storage tanks and pipelines and shipsame to Ghana. The contractor supplied and installed the tanks but failed to procure and ship the pipelines.
It continued, “Another team went back in 2018 to assess the status of the pipeline and reported that the pipeline be sandblasted and coated before it can be shipped because of the corrosion of over (13) thirteen years.
“The contract sum for the project was US$4,430,116.84 with an additional change order of US$653,254.61 and ancillary fees of US$45,798.60 bringing the revised contract sum to US$5,129,170.05 of which all have been paid.
“However, the audit team was not provided details and evidence of approval to the change order stated in the reconciliation with Bayou which was submitted for our review. Also, Management made payment of US$228,125.00 to C- Specs as part of its reconciliation without justification.”
Source: myghanadaily
