A state of uneasiness has engulfed Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) over the management style of the current Managing Director (MD), Edwin Alfred Provencal.
The Herald is informed of a disgruntled workforce at BOST, following certain unilateral decisions of the MD, whom they consider disrespectful and arrogant.
According to insiders, Mr Provencal, who is seen as drawing his powers from the seat of government; the Jubilee House is not a team player and this is affecting operations of the state institution.
They questioned, how fuel is lifted and transported to parts of the country, and asked the powers that be to begin to question who and who has been awarded contracts to lift fuel at BOST and send across the country.
It was suggested that, the bulk of the oil lifting deals are done by politicians within the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) particularly elements at the Presidency, Ministry of Energy and Parliament.
Special mention was made of the Energy Minister, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, who appears unwilling to pay attention to BOST, thus allowing the MD to have his way.
Also cited is the Managing Director’s recent threat and blame game over adulteration of its fuel.
It was mentioned that, he could not be the one investigating his own negligence.
Some members of staff, want to know the members of the committee investigating the fuel adulteration, their mandate and terms of references.
With the embarrassing five million litres adulterated fuel scandal under the Alfred Obeng Boateng in 2017 as background, many insiders are of the view that the current investigation must be a public and independent one to have such issues addressed once and for all.
They also want to know the whereabouts of the current adulterated fuel before it ends up like the 5 million litres which was sold to Movenpinaa Energy, ZUPOIL and Macwest at a unit price of Ghc1 per litre on credit without public tender or auction for disposing public property.
Mr Provencal, had threatened to sack some ten BOST staff at the Kumasi Depot, if investigations revealed that they played any role in a fuel adulteration at the Kumasi depot recently.
He had also vowed to ensure punitive measures against others involved in the incident.
He stated that, all those who were on duty at Pump Station One and other vantage points or sections on the day of the incident at the depot are all under investigation.
He said management is patiently waiting for the outcome of the investigations and recommendations of the same to act.
Mr Provencal was speaking during a stakeholder meeting with transport owners in Accra.
He told the transport owners that fuel tempering in transit by tanker drivers in the industry is causing the nation several millions of US Dollars.
He urgently appealed to the fuel truck owners to immediately take measures to put a stop to this practice or lose their business contracts with BOST.
The Managing Director, further disclosed that the National Security, is to start monitoring the movement of petroleum products from the company’s depots to stop fuel tempering.
It would be recalled that some few weeks ago, ten tanker trucks were allegedly found to have adulterated the petroleum products they had loaded from BOST Depot in Tema to Kumasi Depot. They are still on the run.
More to come!
Discussion about this post