General News of Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Source: adomonline.com
2018-09-18
Julius Debrah (L) in a collage with John Dramani Mahama (R)
A pressure group known as the Centre for National Affairs (CNA) has explained why it has petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor to initiate criminal investigations into what it claims to be suspected illegal payments at the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) to the previous Mahama administration.
Senyo Hosi who is Chief Executive of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors said on Joy FM Monday, ‘there is nothing like security fees’ in their invoices.
He said the payments made while Julius Debrah was President Mahama’s Chief of Staff is another example of politicians using BOST to make money.
A letter signed by Kwame Awuah-Darko explained that the transfers were “monies accrued from the security fees taken from the Bulk Oil Distribution Company’s (BDCs) invoices to effect payments on the cost of petroleum products supplied by Goil”.
The payments were authorised by the former BOST Chief Executive, Kingsley Kwame Awuah-Darko, from August 2015 to January 2017.
The last payment was made four days to a changeover of power to the Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party government.
But the Executive Director of CAN, Samuel Odame Lartey, on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen Tuesday, said it has ‘gathered’ evidence that a whopping GH¢40.5 million was transferred from BOST to the presidency under John Mahama, hence their decision to fall on the Special Prosecutor to investigate.
“Letters covering the transfer suggest the transfer of funds is in respect of monies accrued from the security fees taken from Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) invoices to effect payment on the cost of petroleum products supplied by GOIL,” he said.
“The account in question, we at CNA believe, is an unlawful account, as there is no statutory approval with regards to the said account in the public domain. The reasons for payment from BOST to be made into the said account and nature and manner by which these monies were used are not known to the public” he added.
Meanwhile, the NDC MP of Parliament for Bongo Constituency, Edward Bawa, who petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to investigate what he calls the unlawful payment of some $3 million to Springfield Energy by top managers of BOG on the same show, believes the development is just a way of diverting the rot at BOG.