Deputy Energy Minister, MP clash over ‘missing US$100m oil money’

The Minority Caucus of Parliament, in a statement it issued, alleged that up to US$100 million has gone missing from Ghana Petroleum revenue for the first quarter of 2022.

According to the minority, the US$100 million cannot be accounted for now after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta transferred it to an offshore account without the approval of Parliament.

Reacting to this allegation in an interview on Good Morning Ghana, which was monitored by GhanaWeb, Egyapa Mercer, who is also the Member of Parliament for Sekondi, said that the claims by the minority are totally false.

According to him, the said money was legally used by a subsidiary of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Jubilee Oil Holding Limited (JOHL).

He said that JOHL used the $100 million to repay a loan it had previously acquired and that there is nothing wrong with the GNPC subsidiary doing that.

But, John Abdulai Jinapor, who is also the MP for Yapei Kusawgu, said that the claims of the deputy energy minister are mere fabrications.

He alleged that the government was illegally keeping the money, which should have been put on Ghana’s oil revenue, to acquire a $500 million loan facility.

“I have GNPC’s work programme with me, nowhere in it, is this issue (of the loan repayment) raised,” he said.

He added that even if the claims of the government are true then it has broken the laws of the country by contracting a loan above $30 million without the approval of Parliament contrary to the laws of the country.

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