Six Managing Directors in Akufo-Addo’s eight years weakened TOR – Kombat

Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Managing Director Edmond Kombat says frequent changes in leadership during the eight years of the previous administration weakened management continuity and hindered efforts to resolve the refinery’s longstanding operational challenges.

He said the state-owned facility had six managing directors and an interim management committee under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, resulting in short tenures that made it difficult for successive teams to implement long-term decisions.

Speaking in an interview on Accra-based Channel One TV, Mr Kombat said the frequent leadership changes occurred during a period when TOR was not refining crude oil, further contributing to uncertainty at the facility.

He argued that restoring a refinery with significant technical and financial challenges required stable leadership and a consistent management strategy.

“In eight years, they had six managing directors, including an interim management committee. And an IMC of three personnel. So let’s say roughly seven MDs. You see that the turnover was very short,” he said.

“They were not refining, and I think they had an instability in leadership.”

Mr Kombat also pointed to the accumulation of unaudited financial statements over several years, describing it as a major governance concern that affected the refinery’s ability to establish its financial position.

According to him, the reliance on management accounts instead of independently audited statements created additional difficulties for successive management teams.

“I think they didn’t really have a lot of time to make decisions. And then an audited account just piled up. It was a management account, not an independently audited account,” he said.

He disclosed that the current management had collaborated with the Ghana Audit Service to address the backlog, completing audits covering seven years.

The refinery had also held an annual general meeting to consider its financial statements for the period between 2017 and 2025, he added.

Beyond the leadership and financial reporting issues, Mr Kombat said the previous administration had also faced questions about whether TOR was commercially viable and should continue operating as a refinery.

He claimed that some officials at the Ministry of Energy had considered converting the facility into a tank farm or handing it over for other uses.

“There are indications that some of the people in the government at the Energy Ministry didn’t really believe that TOR was viable. So there was this argument about either making it a tank farm or probably giving it out,” he said.

Mr Kombat, however, insisted that the refinery remained an important national asset, pointing to its storage infrastructure and crude processing capacity.

He said TOR had storage capacity of one million metric tonnes, approximately three times that of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST), and could process 45,000 barrels of crude oil per stream day.

“If you have a refinery like this, the refinery of TOR, the storage is one million metric tons; it’s like three times that of BOST, and you have a refinery that is 45,000 capacity,” he said.

The Managing Director said the priority for the current leadership was to sustain the refinery’s recovery and ensure that future management teams build on the progress made rather than allow leadership instability to undermine its operations again.