THREE opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) are lacing their boots to sue the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) for bypassing Parliament in securing a 700 million dollar loan facility from German bank, Deutsche Bank.
The three MPs are: Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Anthony Akoto-Osei; Deputy Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Atta Akyea and MP for Manhyia South, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh will on Monday file processes at the Accra High Court challenging the GNPC.
Counsel for the three MPs, Nana Asante Bediatuo, told Joy FM, an Accra-based radio station today that beyond the issue of GNPC’s refusal to seek Parliament approval for the loan, there is a more “fundamental” one.
He explained:”The Petroleum Revenue Management Act requires that all of the programmes of GNPC are approved by Parliament in advance. Parliament has already approved the 2014 programme for GNPC and has made allocations and disbursements on that basis.
This [$700 million] borrowing and the project that ostensibly it’s going to be used for have not been approved by Parliament”.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of GNPC Mr. Alex Mould, the loan will be used to support GNPC’s increasing oil and gas infrastructure investment and cash call requirements from its participating and commercial interests.
“GNPC is in negotiations with the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) partners to pay for the pipeline and receiving facility in the OCTP (Sankofa-GyeNyame field) gas development project to enable lower gas price to Ghanaian consumers.
This investment would amount to US$493 million. This will save the country from paying 22% interest if the partners were to pay for that investment.
“GNPC has an immediate requirement of US$105 million to pay, as part of natural gas price negotiated with the OCTP partners. The effect of these measures is to lower gas prices paid by Ghana to the OCTP partners and thus reduce electricity costs to Ghanaians.
“The Corporation has a commitment to pay US$ 36 million, being 40% of the pipeline cost to connect the TEN Field gas to the Jubilee FPSO. This is necessary to send the TEN Field gas to the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) for processing.
“This will save the country from paying 15% interest if the partners were to pay for this investment,” Mr. Mould said.
The controversial loan, with five year tenure, has an interest rate of 4.43%.
African Eye News.com
