…US$1.5 Billion Genser-GNPC Ghost revisited
Samuel Atta Akyea, the chairman of Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, is under scrutiny for what many perceive as a Public Relations effort ahead of the release of the KPMG audit into the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Strategic Mobilisation Limited (SML) revenue assurance contract.
On Monday, February 26, Atta Akyea, led a delegation of Parliamentarians and journalists to the Tema division of SML under the guise of fact-finding.
During the visit, he cautioned against hastily labelling the contract as a channel for political corruption. He also dismissed allegations of cheating in the GRA-SML contract, labelling them as mere propaganda.
The visit occurred after the Finance Committee of Parliament, directed the suspension of all payments under the contract from 2024 in December last year.
This directive was made pending a parliamentary probe into the GRA-SML contract to confirm its integrity. However, since December, the House has shown a lack of urgency in conducting the investigation, leaving Atta Akyea, who chairs another committee of the House, to publicly support SML.
Notably, the SML deal was brokered by the ex-Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, who is a cousin to both President Nana Akufo-Addo and Atta Akyea.
This is not the first time, the Abuakwa South Member of Parliament (MP) has been involved in such matters.
Last year, he led the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament in investigating another controversial government transaction: the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC)-Genser Energy Ghana Limited (GEGL) deal.
Atta Akyea, claimed the transaction saved Ghana US$1.5 billion, even though Parliament did not mandate his Select Committee to carry out an investigation on that matter or issue a report.
This was after civil society groups, including IMANI Africa and the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), had alleged that the country purchased gas for $95.8 million, but sold it to Genser Energy for $43.5 million, resulting in a $1.5 billion financial setback for the state.
Atta Akyea’s Committee quickly jumped into the matter and after months of its so-called investigation, including visits to Genser’s sites, rather came out to announce that Ghana, saved approximately $1.5 billion through the Gas Sales Agreement involving Genser-GNPC.
The report was disputed by the civil society groups, while Atta Akyea and the Ranking Member on the Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, John Abdulai Jinapor, openly exchanged words on various media platforms.
Jinapor, disassociated himself from the contents of the GNPC-Genser Sales Agreement Report, saying it does not accurately reflect his views and that of the entire Minority in Parliament.
In a statement issued on Thursday, August 17, 2023, he urged the public to disregard the report saying “For the avoidance of doubt, I wish to categorically disassociate myself from the content and intents of the said report as it does not accurately reflect my position and that of the Minority in its entirety.”
“Firstly, it is true that I have consistently maintained that the GSA is not fairly priced and will result in significant losses to the state. It cannot therefore be the case that I disagreed with the position of ACEP/IMANI that the GSA in its current form will result in huge losses to the state.”
“More importantly, it is inaccurate to report that the entire membership of the committee disagreed with my position.”
The Yapei-Kusawgu MP, also said the report purportedly signed and released by the Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Samuel Atta-Akyea, contains factual inaccuracies.
Mr Jinapor concluded that, “the current Genser/GNPC gas price of US$2.790/mmBTU is far lower than the actual commodity price of US$4.879/mmBTU as approved by the Public Utility Regulatory Commission.”
“From the evidence, the current Genser/GNPC gas price of US$2.790/mmBTU is far lower than the actual commodity price of US$4.879/mmBTU as approved by the PURC. The critical question the report fails to address is which entity will eventually pay for the price differential of about US$2mmBTU, which runs into billions of cedis over the contract tenure?”
The SLM controversy, appears to have fallen victim to the Genser-GNPC fate in the hands of Atta Akyea, again leading the pack. He dismissed claims of Ghanaians being shortchanged in the contract between the GRA-SML, as mere propaganda.
Atta Akyea, cautioned against hasty branding of the deal as a conduit for political bribery, emphasizing the need to await the findings of KPMG’s assessment which had last Friday as its deadline.
“The committee is very careful not to prejudice what President Akufo-Addo is trying to do. Let Jubilee House come out with their findings based on what KPMG will say, we will engage them formally. What I hate is to try and do propaganda when you don’t have the facts and that is what some people are doing.
“A lot of people don’t have any clue as to what these individuals, this company is doing, yet they come to conclusions and for me, that is very sad. You have not even gone to their data room to see what they are monitoring and the world-class audit they are doing, and you come to the conclusion that this is a conduit for political bribery and all the kinds of things people might want to say, it leaves much to be desired. Those who are interested in knowing the truth will know.”
Commenting on the contract which was under auditing, Director of Special Support Services of SML, Dr Yaa Serwaa Sarpong, said before SML, the average taxable petroleum volume was 240 and 250 million litres but doubled to a sustained level between 450 to 500 petroleum products after SML came in.
According to her, such feat was as a result of the controls put in place to audit and assure revenue in the downstream sector, which translated into over GH¢12 billion in petroleum revenue in the past three-and-a-half years, describing it as “unprecedented.”
This, she said, gave evidence of their contribution to Ghana’s growth with the deployment of state-of-the-art technology, and willing to commit to and sustain the growth for as long as they would be allowed to do the work.
SML debunked an investigative piece put together by the “Fourth Estate” in December last year, alleging of being awarded a 10-year contract duration, insisting that it had been given a 5-year contract.
It further dispelled the allegations that the contract valued at $100 million annually.
Atta Akyea asserted that SML seems to be making significant contributions to the country’s revenue generation.
“If you have a sense of technology and if you see how there have been monumental theft in terms of how under-declarations are done, I am afraid they (SML) have come to expose something very huge, and I think the numbers will show. So for us as Members of Parliament, we have come here to familiarise ourselves with what they have been doing, we will also take the numbers and roll it up.”
“What I hate is to try and do propaganda when you don’t have the facts. And that is what some people are doing. A lot of people have no clue what these individuals are doing here, but they have come to conclusions already, and that is very sad. You don’t have to run a nation this way. When there is a Ghanaian initiative and if you don’t have the facts and understanding to even come to terms with what they are monitoring and the world-class auditing they are doing, and you come to conclusions that this is a contract for political bribery, then it leaves much to be desired,” he told the press.
SML, a Ghanaian-owned company, came under scrutiny following an investigative report by the Fourth Estate alleging irregularities in a $100 million contract awarded to SML by the GRA.
Both GRA and SML deny any wrongdoing, with SML initiating a legal action against the Fourth Estate for defamation.
Since the signing of the revenue assurance contract in December 2020, there has been a noticeable increase in revenue, according to the GRA, which says revenue has surged by GH¢12,981,376,688.00 since the contract was signed.
