Skip to main content

PIAC calls for action against Oranto/Stone Energy


By: Fred Yaw Sarpong-Daily Express

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has called for action against the Oranto/Stone Energy for failing to pay the outstanding surface rental invoice to the government. 

In addition, the committee also asked GRA to charge the company with penalty for default as specified in Section 3 (4) of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA).

This was part of the recommendations made by the committee in the 2014 PIAC Report on Management of Petroleum Revenues which was launched recently in Accra.

Even though the PIAC report did not specified the amount Oranto/Stone Energy supposed to pay to the government as the outstanding surface rental invoice, the committee said it is important GRA will enforce the company to pay any amount due the state with penalty.

The committee also asked Ministry/Minister of Finance (MoF), Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Investment Advisory Committee (IAC) to work together to establish some guidelines for interest to be earned on any unutilized funds be it on the balances of Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) or those set aside for specific purposes.

“This will help to forestall the recurrence of the situation experienced in 2014 whereby US$222.93 million (GHc666.06 million) remained in the Consolidated Fund through the year,” the report noted.

According to PIAC, section 23 (4) should be amended to allow any excess funds over the cap to remain in the Ghana Stabilization Fund (GSF) until such a time that debt repayments are to be made before being transferred into the Debt Service Account (DSA).

It also recommended that the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) must publish the returns earned on the unutilized cash-in-hand of US$187.22 million, which GNPC said it was invested in anticipation of pipeline projects.

“In order to facilitate easy reconciliation and authentication of payments and disbursements of the ABFA to various priority areas, the exchange rate(s) used to convert the amounts into cedis should be published by MoF in the Annual and Reconciliation Reports on the Petroleum Funds,” PIAC recommended.


The committee asked for a critical appraisal of the viability of the continuous operation of the Saltpond field against the backdrop of low crude oil price. “With crude oil price projected to hover around US$52 in 2015, the business case for operating the Saltpond field in 2015 has been further weakened considering that fact the oilfield produced a barrel of crude oil at a costs US$31.22 in 2014,” the report stated.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vodafone sells 45% shares in Verizon for US$130 billion

Vodafone has sold its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to US telecoms group Verizon Communications in one of the biggest deals in corporate history. The US$130 billion (£84bn) deal was announced by Vodafone after the close of trading on the London Stock Exchange. The company will return £54 billion to its shareholders, of which £22 billionn will go to shareholders in the UK. Vodafone will also invest money in its business, with funds earmarked for high speed mobile phone networks. It said that by 2017 its main five European markets would have almost complete 4G coverage. Possibly it would be wrong to carp and wring hands that Vodafone won't be paying a penny of tax to the British taxman” Vodafone group chairman Gerard Kleisterlee said: "The transaction will position Vodafone strongly to pursue our leadership strategy in mobile and unified communication services for consumers and enterprises, both in our developed markets and across our emerging markets businesses." The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shortage of weighing cards hit major hospitals in Accra

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express There is scarcity of Child Health Records Book (weighing cards), in some major public hospitals in the capital, information reaching the Daily Express indicates. Checks by this paper revealed that while some of the hospitals have being encountering the shortage for about a year now, others started experiencing it six months ago. In place of the Child Health Record Book (weighing card), the nursing mothers are given a single card on which information of children are recorded on it. Those hospitals identified are the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Korle Bu Polyclinic, Kaneshie Polyclinic, Adabraka Polyclinic and the Ridge Hospital. At the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the nursing mothers are given yellow cards in place of the weighing cards. The Public Relations Secretariat at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital said such information has not come to their notice and for that matter they cannot comment on it. “We do not have some ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ABL launches chibuku super in Bolgatanga

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong sarpong007@gmail.com Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) has officially launched the Chibuku Super drink at Bolgatanga in the Upper East region with the aim of reaching a lot of customers. Mr. Thomas Nii Ponku, Supervisor in charge of Chibuku Super at ABL told Daily Express that the management decided to launch the Chibuku Super drink in the Upper East region because they’ve realized it is similar to a traditional drink in the region. “Chibuku is like a well developed pito, a traditional drink made from fermented millet or sorghum in the Northern part of Ghana. So the idea is to provide them with similar drink,” he added. Mr. Nii Ponku disclosed this when members of the Institute of Finance and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) toured the facility of ABL to acquaint themselves with the expansion project at the factory. He mentioned that after a feasibility study, they realized there is a potential market for the product in the northern part of Ghana ...
Post a Comment
Read more