GNPC ex-gratia: GII wants full disclosure

State oil firm Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) must make full disclosure on the quantum of money paid to four former top-level management members as ex gratia.

That is the demand from Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of anti-graft body Transparency International (TI).

"We’re entitled to know," Executive Director Vitus Azeem told Joy FM Tuesday, adding: "GNPC is a state organisation, a state venture set up with state resources, and, so, if they find it necessary to react to the allegation, they need to tell us all the information…They need to tell us how much they paid."

Former Deputy Energy Minister, K.T. Hammond, alleges that apart from Esther Cobbah, who got about GHS600,000, the other three former officials – Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, Nana Asafu-Adjaye, and Benjamin Dagadu – all received about GHS1 million each as ex-gratia after 15 years of leaving the institution.

Though the GNPC has confirmed paying the money to the four, it did not give details about how much each got.

A press statement released by the corporate affairs department of the corporation on Monday November 30, 2015 said the four deserved the money, which had accumulated over the years.

It said: "The four served the corporation for periods ranging between twelve and twenty-one years. They were all removed from office in 2001 under circumstances that did not allow for the payment of their respective accumulated separation entitlements. The Board of Directors of the corporation, after an in-depth review of the situation, concluded that the payment of end-of-service benefits to these management personnel who have made valuable contribution to the development of the corporation is a valid obligation."

"The board took the position that meeting this obligation, however, belatedly, is the right thing to do. The corporation computed the amounts to be paid to each of the affected senior managers on the same basis as what has been used with respect to all staff who are made redundant or separated from the organisation," the statement noted. It, however, did not specify how much each of them got as packages.

In Mr Hammond’s view, Mr Tsikata, whom he described as “arrogant,” did not deserve the amount. “He should not have been entitled to anything anyway,” he said. All the others, he said, did not deserve the payment as well.

"What did Esther Cobbah do? Legally she was not entitled to anything. ..Somebody is taking the country for a ride. It’s not fair," he said.