THE GHANAIAN VOICE

"GNPC owes 233.8 billion cedis", is the banner headline of the lead story in the Voice. The story says the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is indebted to the Bank of Ghana to the tune of 145.2 billion cedis as at December 31st, 1995. The Voice says as a result of this indebtedness, the central bank was obliged to suspend debits to the GNPC's overdrawn account for interest charges which have accumulated to the tune of 88.6 billion cedis as at December 31st, 1995. The paper says sources close to the bank intimate that the corporation's debt obligation does not represent an unpaid loan advanced to it for its operations, rather, according to the sources, it arose out of default on the part of the GNPC to provide the necessary cedi cover for payments made by the central bank under letters of credit established against the bank's account held at the London branch of the Ghana Commercial Bank in respect of crude oil imports. The Voice says the sources explained that it was the bank's view that since the crude oil actually landed in Ghana and was processed, sold and paid for by consumers, the GNPC would not be forgiven the debt.