"The Minister Was Economical With the Truth"

Tsatsu Tsikata, the embatitled former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), last Thursday walked alone to the media wolves at the Accra International Press Centre to put up a robust defence against accusations of financial recklessness leveled against him by the Ministry of Energy.

The Ministry had portrayed him as having mismanaged the GNPC leading to the loss of millions of dollars to the state.

The former law-lecturer, reputed to be one of the inner circle of advisers to Jerry John Rawlings during his reign of terror, though would have none of it. He tore through the accusations with the sweet tongue that once convinced the former Head of State to pronounce him 'economic wizard' in the international forum of the Confederation of British Industry Conference on Ghana in 1995.

He dribbled past the accusations and swift inquisition by newsmen. The accusations by the Minister of Energy, Albert Kan Dapaah, he said, were without foundation.

By the end of the day, the former CEO, who had disappeared from society since the National Democratic Congress were sent packing by the electorate last December, was the star of the media.

He was on prime time television and on morning talk shows, the next day. His press conference itself was live on three Accra FM stations and he appeared to revel in the limelight. On his entry at the Press Centre, though, Tsatsu appeared to be frail and at one point in time appeared to be stumbling with his steps.

Until January this year, Tsatsu was powerful and prominent in his position as the first and long serving CEO of the GNPC, which was set up in 1985 under PNDC Law 64 to explore for hydrocarbons in Ghana.

Having been stripped of all his powers, however, Tsatsu looked visibly tired and deserted as he sat alone with the moderator to address the press conference without any moral support.

Except for the presence in the audience of, Ama Benyiwa Doe and Edith Haizel, two NDC Parliamentarians. The usually large party members and supporters who flank NDC functionaries on such occasions were conspicuously absent.

Tsatsu's decision to address the press in itself was seen as rather curious. For several years, he failed to respond to persistent media reports of financial impropriety leveled against him. Charges that the GNPC, under his control, was digressing from its legal mandate were also dismissed with contempt.

The corporation went beyond core operation of oil exploration, and steadily ventured into operations that covered salt winning, industry, cocoa farming, gold mining, the hospitality industry, telecommunications and power generation.

Tsatsu in a 20-page prepared text, dismissed the government's assessment of his performance at the GNPC as unfair. The government has accused the former CEO of plunging the country in debt by veering off the core project of the corporation and mismanagement.

Commentators, however, described him as evasive and failed to address the substantive question marks flagged on his integrity.

Kofi Coomson, Publisher of the Ghanaian Chronicle, described the whole presentation as "verbal gymnastics", while Ebo Quansah, Editor of the Public Agenda suggested that Tsatsu should admit he was an economic disaster who helped to push this nation further into the woods.

In an earlier press conference, Kan-Dapaah had alleged that the GNPC drillship, Discoverer 511 (D511) had to be sold to pay for losses incurred by him (Tsatsu) in derivative transactions with Societe Generale, a Paris-based bank, which had obtained a judgment against GNPC in the total sum of $47 million.

The drillship, according to the government, was sold for $24 million.

Tsatsu's response to this was that it was rather the Kufuor administration that withdrew the legal representation of GNPC while the case was still pending in court, leading to judgment being entered against the Corporation.

He was also accused of presenting himself to Societe Generale as "a commercial, legally trained businessman, sophisticated in terms of his understanding of derivatives trading and the theory behind how derivatives work and how they can be used."

Tsatsu dismissed this accusation as false. "That is just not me."

He explained that the Societe Generale rather presented themselves to him in his capacity as CEO of GNPC to assist the corporation to finance various activities of GNPC, particularly the Tano Fields development.

Reacting to allegations that he was paid a net premium of $8 million by Societe Generale, Tsatsu said all payments made by Societe General in respect of transactions between the GNPC and the French bank were made to the corporation.

"The forensic audit that the Minister says has been commissioned will show these funds movements which the Minister tries to portray as personal funds movements when he knows this is not the case", he stated.

Tsatsu said by December 1997, prior to the sharp price changes affecting the corporation, GNPC had positive cash flows from the transactions with Societe Generale of about $10 million, part of which was used for expenditures on the Tano Project and investments in telecommunications assets.

Another allegation against the ex-GNPC boss was that he sold the country's oil on the international market instead of bringing the allocations to Ghana.

"I did no such thing", he said, demanding to know the facts on which the government made those allegations.

Tsatsu tried to justify why GNPC, under his control, engaged in activities outside its core business. According to him, the law that set up GNPC shows that, as with all national oil companies, exploration is not the only core function of the corporation.

When challenged to give one concrete example of achievement under his stewardship, he said the last five years have seen the most intensive period in the history of oil exploration in the country, with about $200 million spent by a number of companies in gathering new data and drilling wells.

At the time of going to press there were reports that the Energy Ministry will hold a counter press conference early this week to respond to Tsatsu's denials.