NO WRONGDOING IN ‘GNPC-LITASCO’ PHASE 6 FINANCING – ENERGY MINISTRY HITS BACK AT JJ AND MINORITY

The Ministry of Energy is debunking claims by the Minority in Parliament that the “GNPC-LITASCO’ re-financing arrangement is being done in secrecy without parliamentary approval.

In a statement signed by Ranking Member on Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee and Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu, Hon. John Jinapor, the Minority alleges that, government seeks to contract the facility using GNPC without the necessary approvals.

However, in a swift rebuttal through a statement on Friday, 22nd September, 2023, the Ministry of Energy said, the move by the minority is only a calculated attempt to sully the reputation of government including His Excellency the President and other government officials for political reasons.

This, the Ministry says is because, the said agreement has now gone through various processes and yet to be sent to parliament when the house reconvenes mid-October.

“It is important to state that, this particular facility the minority mischievously makes allusion to is being re-financed for the sixth time.

In the 2023 Work Programme of the GNPC, the corporation indicated clearly, their intentions to raise $620million from the LITASCO facility to finance their work programme and proceeded to obtain the necessary parliamentary approval including the refinancing of the loan” the statement said continued “Now, GNPC settled on the terms and conditions of this facility with LITASCO just last week Thursday, September 14, 2023, duly obtaining its Board’s approval.

The record will show, that on the same day, the document was sent to the Ministry of Energy for a “no objection”.

After the Ministry of Energy expressed its no objection, it then forwarded the document to the Ministry of Finance for its ‘no objection” and approval too, in line with the dictates of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA). MOF’s approval was given on Friday, September, 15, 2023.”

The Ministry said it struggles to establish why the ranking Member and the minority group, given their expected knowledge of these procedural requirements, would allege wrongdoing on the part of government actors and in fact impugn the integrity of even His Excellency the President, when indeed, what is being done is in line with law, propriety and in fact, the principles of good governance.

“The only possible reason one can larch unto for the minority’s action is to cause disaffection for government for possible electoral gains, given the proximity to the electioneering campaign season” it said The Ministry said the general public should ignore and treat with contempt the claims by the minority describing them as inaccurate.