Tsatsu Tsikata appears in GNPC again as staff kick against CEO’s investments

The developments leading to the surprise dismissal of Mr Tsatsu Tsikata from the position of CEO of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), in the year 2000, is about to repeat itself, this week.

Reports reaching Ghanapoliticsonline.com points to the fact that the acting Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, is on his way out of the corporation, following allegations that he has gone out of the mandate of the Corporation to undertake investments which are not the core business of the Corporation.

Like in the case of Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, petitions have been sent to the President demanding the removal of the Ag CEO of GNPC, consequent of which meetings have been held at the Presidency to decide on the fate of Alex Mould.

Sources within government have told our reporter that a decision was taken after a Member of the Board had agreed with the concerned staff of GNPC and consequently went to see the President over some of the issues raised in the petitions.

The concerned GNPC staff claim that Mr. Alex Mould has over exposed the financial situation of GNPC by providing guarantee for major projects such as the 225 MW KarPower Barge and the contracting of Quantum Power to provide a regasification plant on the east of Tema.

GNPC in 2015 provided a hundred million dollars (US$100 million) guarantee to the owners of the KarPower barge, in an effort to help solve the power generation shortfall that the country was experiencing.

Few months after that big step, Alex Mould was in the news again for agreeing to pump five hundred and fifty million (US$550 m) into the construction and operation of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage, regasification and delivery facilities.

These and some other structural changes being undertaken at GNPC are said to have necessitated the protest letters sent to the Flag Staff House by a Board Member of the Corporation to demand the removal of the CEO.

Close watchers say, Alex Mould is bound to suffer the fate of his ex-Boss, Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata under whom He (Alex Mould) worked in GNPC from 1985 to 1994.

As a protégé of Tsatsu Tsikata it comes as no surprise that the allegations leveled against his mentor is being repeated against Him.

His critics in their petitions to President John Dramani Mahama, among others, have questioned why GNPC is paying for the fuel used to power the plants of the KarPower barge.

President John Mahama who is currently in Japan and is expected to ask Mr. Alex Mould to report to the Minister of Petroleum for re-assignment, in the same manner as Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata’s dismissal letter stated in year 2000.

Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata who suffered years of prosecution following his dismissal was finally thrown into jail by the President Kufuor regime which took over the reins of government, in 2001.

As destiny may have it, the protégé of Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata is also to be fired from office in another election year (just like year 2000) based on the same charges leveled in 2000. It is therefore predicted that Mr. Alex Mould may also suffer years of prosecution and be thrown into jail, just as his former boss suffered.

Although Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata is credited for most of works and mappings that finally led to the discovery of oil in 2007, he has always been challenged by his political opponents as having engaged in reckless investments, when he was the CEO of GNPC.

Mr. Tsikata has always maintained that such investments were necessary and strategic to secure the future of GNPC and ensure that the company will be in a position to play an effective partner role, when oil is discovered.

Mr. Alex Mould is also currently credited for the successful development of the over 7 billion Gye-Nyame Sankofa gas field project, the take-off of the Tweneboah-Enyan-Nton (TEN) oil fields, the Hess Oil fields off cape-three-points and other such major projects, his political opponents are criticizing him of the same over-exposure of GNPC.

Alex Mould (just like Tsikata) is also said to have told his critics that the investments he has made are strategic and transformational such as to ensure that the company will be in a position to play an effective role in the oil and gas industry, and becoming what he terms as a gas aggregator.