The Minority in Parliament has raised red flags over GNPC’s decision to make donations of over GHS 2 million to some institutions including the Okyehene for his 20th anniversary celebration. Former Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor questioned the reasoning behind the decision and described it as improper while speaking on the floor of Parliament. “I hold the view that if you have a company that has a funding gap only one year, we are not talking of their total liabilities, just this year alone. GNPC has a funding gap or a deficit of 1.24 billion cedis, they ought to be concentrating on how to pay that money,’’ he pointed out. “There is the potential for EOCO to be investigating the Board Chairman of the GNPC, so if this same Board Chairman sits in a meeting and approve monies to be doled out to EOCO, I find that inappropriate and improper. Moreover, EOCO’s budget was approved here in parliament, the budget was debated and so how can we approve a budget only for EOCO to then fall on GNPC?” Mr. Junapor questioned. In a leaked memo intercepted by 3news on Monday, the GNPC earmarked about 2.6 million cedis for Okyehene’s tree-planting initiative, the First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo’s Foundation as well as general financial support to investigative body Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO) and the Ghana Journalists Association. These were captured under the GNPC’s corporate social investment projects and dated October 29. This generated a lot of controversy over how the country’s oil revenue is being expended at a time the oil exploratory body is said to be in a funding deficit exceeding 1.2 billion cedis. Mr. Jinapor stressed the Energy Minister would be summoned before parliament to justify the expenditure and provide a detailed breakdown of same. “The minister must come and explain when this protocol was adopted. Is the minister aware? Is it a policy decision of government that GNPC can engage in this kind of expenditure? What are the protocols involved?’’ Mr. Jinapor quizzed. On some 550,000 cedis allocated to the Economic and Organised Crime Office, John Jinapor argued that the Board Chairman of the GNPC who is also Chairman of the NPP, Freddie Blay is being investigated by EOCO for donating some 275 buses to the party and the decision to give EOCO such an amount of money could compromise the process. By Selorm Amenyah | 3news.com | Ghana]]>
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