Members of the New Ghana Social Justice Forum, a civil society group, on Thursday thronged the premises of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) in Accra to demand the resignation and prosecution of top officials of the company.
This follows the purchase of 18 iPhones for BOST’s corporate executives with an amount of GH¢285,412.16 and several financial losses captured in the 2022 Auditor General’s Report.
Addressing the media at the protest, Yahaya Alhassan, President of the Ghana Social Justice Forum, called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to dissolve the Board of Directors of BOST immediately to protect the public purse.
“Ghana is berserk with corruption, the Energy Ministry is an industry of corruption,” Alhassan said. “We are calling on all to join this campaign for the prosecution of all BOST top officials and for the dissolution of BOST Board members.
“Had this been in the advanced countries, the Board chairman of BOST should have been imprisoned by now. We are calling on President Akufo-Addo, but what is clear is that the BOST Board members are not in existence. Even though they are here, Ghanaians don’t want them, they should be prosecuted as soon as possible.”
In a reaction, Deputy Managing Director for BOST, Moses Mensah Asem denied the allegations by the group and explained that some of the infractions occurred during the tenure of the previous management team.
“I am not going to respond to any document here but the facts remain that there are a lot of unfounded allegations, luckily, BOST has its financials audited from 2016 to 2022 and as I speak, we have been to the Public Accounts Committee and they have reviewed all document. There is one allegation there that is in the audited accounts, the three million that is being described as loot and share and it happened in 2015, at a time that the present management team was not in office. That transaction was a payment for a sixteen-acre land to be used for an LPG terminal and three million was given to the landlord.
“Unfortunately BOST was not financially strong at that time so we couldn’t continue the payment before we even came to office so we made the effort to negotiate with the seller and he took us to court and the case has been cleared.”
“Again, to say the Board Chairman created three different companies, as far as I am concerned, the Board Chairman never ever participated in any bidding contract with BOST let alone creating three companies.”
BOST was accused of purchasing 18 iPhone 13 Pro Max phones for its corporate executives, amounting to GH¢28 million.
BOST in a statement acknowledged the acquisition of the phones for its corporate executives in May 2022 but debunked the GH¢28 million figure making rounds on social media.
“The total cost of the phones stood at Two Hundred and Thirty-Four Thousand Ghana Cedis (234,000.00) grossed up for taxes at Two Hundred and Eighty-Five Thousand, Four Hundred and Twelve Ghana Cedis, Sixteen Pesewas (GHS285,412.16).”
Source: Citinewsroom
