An internal memoranda of understanding dated on the 14th of November and leaked to the Ghanaian Observer Newspaper involving the Ghana Gas Company and Messrs Pietro Fiorentini points to an inflated contract agreement of 8.3 million dollars.
This amount, the paper understands is cost for the front end engineering design for a second train gas processing plant at Atuabo.
However, information gleaned from sources at the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) points to a rather inflated cost of 3.5million dollars.
According to the source, these works could be done at a cost of 5million dollars and noted the connivance of the procurement authority to allow the former management go away with such an agreement.
REVIEW:
Speaking to the paper on anonymity, an engineer at the GNPC disclosed the cost of the project could be reviewed downwards.
This, he believed was because the formal signing of the contract has not yet been done since the former government had to leave office for the NPP to take over the management of the project.
According to the source, the country could be saved a whopping 3.5million dollars if the necessary due diligence is done by the new Energy and Petroleum Minister.
He disclosed the GNPC under its former CEO Alex Mould and the Ghana Gas Company boss, George Sipa Yankey entered into several contracts which could have been beaten down to save the country huge sums of money.
CAUTION:
The paper understands many documents including unsigned agreements were still being negotiated with the former management even though their tenure had ended as at December last year.
Our source called for due diligence by the incoming Energy Minister so as to avoid being trapped into dubious arrangements.
According to him, it will be better the Minister takes time to investigate the contracts pending so as to ascertain its authenticity.
The incoming Board Chair, Mr Freddie Blay, as well as the Chief Executive Officer have therefore been tasked to painstakingly review the ongoing projects to determine its value.
