The Executive Director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye, has said that there are credible entities that can be engaged to ensure the resuscitation of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) other than Torrencto.
He mentioned that, the Torrentco Asset Management Limited (TAML) must not be allowed to takeover the refinery because it does not have the financial muscle.
“This is a transaction that sought to hand over such a strategic national asset to a company that has not shown no financial capacity to manage such a strategic asset and yet, as if nobody cared that such a strategic national asset could be handed to a company that has shown no facial muscle or technical capacity to manage the asset. We kept talking but nobody cared until the A-G was petitioned.
“We are hoping that the ultimate result is that such a transaction will never take place and therefore we will have the opportunity to re-examine what strategic options are available to retool TOR and get it to work. We cannot have such an asset idling when there are credible business entities that can actually support the resuscitation of the company,” he said on Accra-based TV3.
The office of the Attorney General (AG) in a Due Diligence Report (DDR) called for a reassessment of Torentco’s financial and technical capacity to undertake the proposed transaction.
“TAML has no established affiliation with Vitol or with any other company, which has the needed funds and technical capacity to undertake the Proposed Lease Transaction and without whose support TAML lacks the financial and technical capacity to undertake its obligation under the Proposed Lease Transaction.
“TAML lacks the requisite licenses and documentation to undertake the proposed lease transaction, proceeding with the project will therefore be contrary to the law. You may revert to us should you require any further clarification on the matter,” the report read.
The General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers Union of the TUC Ghana had objected to the lease agreement between the TOR and TAML.
They expressed fear that the country might be shortchanged because the Board of Directors of TOR has allegedly been compromised in the deal.
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