US$22m TOR lease: This deal is totally opaque – Kofi Bentil

A Vice President of the policy think tank IMANI-Africa, Kofi Bentil, has stated that the lease of the Tema Oil Refinery is opaque and must be made transparent.

He stated that the details of the deal must be made known since the group acquiring the refinery is not well known.

His comments come after the reported lease of Tema Oil Refinery to Torentco Asset Management (TAM) for six years at $22 million.

“Our problem with this particular deal is that it is totally opaque. We have to go underground and find out all kinds of ways on the documentation, and the deal is bad. We don’t know who the real directors are, and our checks are showing that they are fronts for other people. It is unfortunate, and we hope that is clarified,” he was quoted by 3News.

Kofi Bentil further added that the attempt to get TOR back up and running is welcomed, only that the agreement must be transparent and beneficial to Ghana.

“To put it in concise terms, we are happy with the divestment of Tema Oil Refinery, but it must be transparent; the people who are interested in it must show their hand, and show what they come with.

“We should check their bona fides. We should know how much money they are bringing, and because of the lessons of PDS, they have to have sufficient security so that if anything doesn’t go well, we don’t have to be in the situation of PDS that we have to claw back and at a loss,” he noted.

Kofi Bentil joins a number of analysts and Ghanaians who have expressed their displeasure with the terms and conditions stated in the lease for the Refinery.

However, the Senior Staff Union of the Refinery has expressed their support for the deal to lease the refinery, adding that it is the only viable option.

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