GNPC stripped bare

The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), until very recently a very powerful, rich and prominent corporation under its first and long servicing CEO, Tsatsu Tsikata, is now struggling to merely stay alive, reports the Public Agenda.

Set up in 1985, under PNDC Law 64 to explore for hydrocarbons, the corporation steadily spread itself till its operations covered areas like hospitality, gold mining, salt winning, telecommunications and power generation.

It has interests in salt production in Ada, a hotel at Mole, gold mining at Prestea, and a gas thermal project still under construction at Effasu in the Western Region, among others.

But now the corporation is about to lose all these. Already it has lost its place as a partner in the $500 million West African Gas Pipeline Project. A special audit to look into its activities to find out if it has had value for its money will be under way soon. Former PNDC/NDC Finance Minister, Kwesi Botchwey, cited GNPC as one of his reasons for leaving the government. Botchwey's resignation came after his government had run a long unanticipated deficit, which was caused largely by GNPC borrowing from the central bank. The corporation had also become a bone of contention between the NDC government whose leader was hell-bent on protecting his friend's fiefdom and the World Bank, which wanted to sell it because of losses.

Now with the NDC government out of power, the corporation has come face to face with the harsh realities that many former public corporations faced and went under. The Corporation is being asked to justify its existence and the hints are frightening for the 653 workers of the corporation. The moment of truth the workers are dreading is close as the three-man committee set up to look at how the corporation can be restructured to focus on its core business, will submit its report to the Minister of Energy, Albert Kan-Dapaah this week.