KT claims GNPC paid Tsatsu GHS1m

Former Deputy Energy Minister, KT Hammond, has accused the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) of paying its former CEO, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, GHS1 million for no work done.

According to him, Mr Tsikata, who left the state-owned oil firm 15 years ago, has been paid GHS1 million by the “current GNPC” “to just stay at home and blow.”

Mr Hammond, who is being investigated by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) on how he disbursed $900,000 of a total of $24million realised from the sale of Ghana’s drill ship in June 2001, made these allegations when he spoke to Journalists in Parliament on Friday, November 27.

The Adansi-Asokwa legislator said Mr Tsikata was not the only beneficiary of the payment. He alleged that another former Chief Executive of the firm, Mr Asafo Adjei, was also paid close to GHS1 million.

“Esther Cobbah has been given about 600 and something thousand cedis, a whole list of people at GNPC have been given our money,” he alleged.

“These people, who superintended the collapse of GNPC [which] I have been talking about, have been given this much money, and my understanding is that a host of other people have been given so much money to put into their pockets when the country is collapsing,” Mr Hammond said.

In his view, the payments “just do not make economic sense. It is a criminal activity”.