BOST scandal: Culprits will be prosecuted in Mahama’s second coming – NDC

The administration of the next Mahama government will ensure sanctions for persons culpable for the sale of contaminated fuel in 2017 for personal gains, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said.

Communication’s officer of the party, Sammi Gyamfi, said the issue would be revisited if former President Mahama and the NDC come to power in the next election.

Mr Gyamfi recalled that on January 18,  2017, “five (5) million litres of fuel was contaminated at the premises of the state-owned Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) by the mixture of diesel and petrol, and sold to unlicensed companies namely, Movenpina and Zup Oil under dubious circumstances”.

An investigation was commissioned, and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) exonerated the Managing Director of BOST, Mr Alfred Obeng Boateng, at the time.

However, the NDC maintains that the issue was “swept under the carpet by President Akufo-Addo who thinks Ghanaians have short memories”.

At a press conference on Monday to launch a corruption tracker, Mr Gyamfi said the “day of accountability for the corrupt Akufo Addo government is not far, as the next NDC-Mahama government in 2021, shall investigate and prosecute all culprits who are involved in this stinking ‘BOSTGATE’ corruption scandal.”

He maintained that the sale of the contaminated fuel to “these unlicensed companies, therefore, breached sections 11 and 32 of the NPA Act (ACT 691) of 2005, hence unlawful”.

According to him, the transaction “did not go through any tender process in breach of Sections 16(2) (c), 40(1), 35, 83 and 84 of the Public Procurement Act (Act 663) of 2003.”

For him, because no one was prosecuted “for this pungent corruption scandal which has caused the nation huge financial losses, it bears Akufo-Addo out as the biggest enabler and promoter of corruption.”

He wondered why the government would sanction the recent increment in the BOST margin in the face of huge losses through corrupt acts.

In his view, President Akufo-Addo increased the margin that “the Mahama government had promised to scrap, by 100% on petroleum products, that is from 3 pesewas to 6 pesewas, ostensibly to raise funds for the management of the company he has collapsed”.