The Ghana Revenue Authority has retrieved 15 million out of 40 million dollars from Sinopec International Petroleum Services Corporation, that was engaged in the construction of the gas processing plant at Atuabo. The company was found to have inflated the cost of the processing plant by about 40 million dollars.
Co-chair of Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [GHEITI] Dr. Steve Manteaw who made this known to journalists at Nkroful in the Ellembelle district of the Western region said Ghana was surcharged through transfer pricing deal of pipes and logistics by Sinopec and has therefore called on tax authorities to follow the procurement process to retrieve the rest of the money.
According to Dr. Manteaw, the Ghana gas project could have been constructed at a cheaper cost if the proper checks were conducted into the procurement process of logistics for the project.
He further alleged that Sinopec, which was in charge of the construction of the facility, set up an offshore company in Dubai by name FAZ where they procured the various logistics and pipes at an inflated.
Moreover, Ghana Gas, supervisors of the project, granted tax concessions to Sinopec which is against their mandate, which they later sought for parliamentary ratification in 2016 even though the project was completed in 2014, which to him reduced the role of parliament to rubber stamping.
He further expressed shock that parliament gave its approval without seeing the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning contract of the project, which to him, raises serious concerns.
Dr. Steve Manteaw maintains that the whole issue of western corridor gas infrastructure needs to be revisited to ensure blunders committed by the country do not recur.
Dr. Steve Manteaw is therefore calling on the relevant state agencies to collaborate with the GRA towards retrieving the rest of the money
By Paa Kojo Peters |Connect FM |3news.com |Takoradi