The Executive Director of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe has criticised the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) over its decision to secure a $1.2 billion dollar loan.
According to him, the GNPC lacks the capacity to prudently manage resources and is less likely to put that amount of money to good use.
Media reports suggests that GNPC is securing the loan from the Deutsche Bank on the blind side of Parliament.
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko of Global Dynamic Consult had earlier asked government to prevent the GNPC from securing the loan.
In an interview on Eyewitness News, Otchere-Darko explained that when the law which created the GNPC was enacted, the nation had no Parliament, therefore, PNDC Law 64 expressly stipulated under Section 15(2) that “the power of the Corporation to borrow money shall be exercisable only on the recommendation of the Secretary and with the approval of the Secretary responsible for Finance as to the amount, source of the loan and the terms and conditions under which the loan may be effected.”
GNPC has said it needs the loan to embark on an oil exploration project in the country.
But speaking on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme,The Big Issue, Franklin Cudjoe insisted the GNPC has no business getting into oil exploration
“…We have a spoilt brat on our hands just wasting our oil money. What is the business in starting all this drilling…we have aided them, this is legal plunder, we have aided them and they are wasting and then they think they have the wings to become a mini state, arrange loans on the blind side of Parliament…all of a sudden you [GNPC] want to start exploration , don’t forget in GNPC’s life, they wasted a lot of money, claiming they were exploring oil around the world.”
Franklin Cudjoe is not the first to raise concerns about the GNPC’s decision to secure the loan on the blind side of Parliament.
The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has described the failure of the GNPC to submit to Parliament the loan for approval as suspicious.
“There is something hidden which we must call for…If the GNPC had these expectations of going for loans, then of course, it calls for due diligence and proper procedures to put this as part of their annual planning for approval by Parliament,” a Senior Researcher at ACEP, Peter Amewu said.
