Former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Tsatsu Tsikata has thrown a challenge to doubting thomases and even to critics who disbelieve his testimony to the Judgement Debt Commission to come forward and cross examine him.

Tsikata insists his testimony before the Commission is factual and a true representation of what transpired during his tenure as GNPC boss.

 He was explaining to the Commission the role GNPC played in a judgement debt scandal involving GNPC and Societe Generale in which an oil drill ship belonging to the former was sold at a cost of 24 million dollars to pay $19.5 million debt owed Societe General.

Tsikata stated emphatically that there was no judgement debt owed Societe General during his tenure.

He admitted though that Societe General was owed an amount of money and which the Corporation was negotiating a settlement. By the time he left office, lawyers for GNPC, Bindman and Partners, were still negotiating a further reduction in the $12 million the bank was willing to accept, he claimed.

His testimony contradicted those given by former Energy Minister and his deputy Kan Dapaah and KT Hammond respectively, both of whom told the Commission yesterday that GNPC had incurred a debt of 40 million dollars in their transaction with Societe General.

Both men claimed GNPC had been run down and was in such a mess prior to the coming into office of the Kufuor administration.

But when he appeared before the Commission, Tuesday, Tsikata told the judgement debt commission, GNPC could not have been described as being in a state of mess.

He said the Corporation at the time had liabilities but had assets too, which none of the critics seemed to be talking about.

He also dismissed claims the controversial oil drill ship had been collateralized in the oil exploration transaction with Societe General.

Tsatsu Tsikata said a "mortgage document" was drafted between GNPC and Societe General to cover the oil drill ship but that document had no indication of any amount "due and payable."

He challenged anybody with contrary information or facts to be allowed to step up and cross examine.

But the Judgement Debt Commissioner Yaw Apau declined the offer of a cross examination, stating, "you are not on trial and so nobody would be able to cross examine you."