‘Sack BOST MD now' - Coalition for Social Justice

Pressure group, Coalition for Social Justice (CSJ), is putting pressure on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to sack the Managing Director (MD) of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company, Mr. Alfred Obeng Boateng.

“We are surprised at the loud silence of President Akufo-Addo since the dirty fuel scandal hit the country.  

As a self-professed and anti-corruption crusader, one would have thought that he [President Akufo-Addo] would have acted with similar alacrity and dispatch as he did during his opposition days,” the group noted.

According to the group, the conspicuous silence of the president was an indication of complicity and endorsement of a deal under the watch of the BOST MD.

Addressing the media in Accra yesterday, Convener of the group, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, indicated that sacking Mr. Boateng will pave way for transparent investigations into the matter to unravel the truth.

The group however, kicked against the ministerial committee to which was commissioned to investigate the matter, arguing that “from the look of things, we believe strongly that the committee cannot unravel the truth of the matter.”

However, for the investigations to be successful, the group called on the president to task the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to launch investigations into the matter to ascertain the facts of the situation.

The group noted that it was imperative for CHRAJ to be tasked to launch an inquiry into the matter in line with its Article 218 of the 1992 Constitution. In the opinion of the group, “an issue of this magnitude cannot be left in the hands of the ministerial committee alone, particularly when the majority in Parliament and National Petroleum Authority (NPA) have already pre-empted the work of the committee.

The group also accused the MD of watching aloof as such activities were conducted under his watch.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) Company, Alfred Obeng, has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and National Security in the controversial sale of five million litres of off-spec fuel.

The MD came under attack over the decision to sell five million litres of contaminated fuel to Movenpiina, a company said to have been incorporated barely a month after it negotiated the deal with BOST and without NPA license.

The joint investigations conducted by the BNI and National Security found nothing wrong with the decision to sell the contaminated fuel to Movenpiina Company Limited.

The investigations also established no direct relationship between MD of BOST, Mr. Alfred Obeng, and Movenpiina.

Earlier, addressing a news conference in Accra yesterday, the Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko, however, proffered some recommendations including a review of the legal regime on the sale of contaminated fuel; publicising the sale of contaminated fuel by way of competitive tender as against the expression of interest as well as improving petroleum standard operating procedures to prevent future occurrences.