Ranking Member on Mines and Energy Committee in Parliament, John Jinapor, has called on government to pull the brakes on the TOR-Torrentco partnership.

The partnership which will see the Tema Oil Refinery leased to Torrentco for six years has been described by civil society organisations as opaque and lopsided against the refinery.

IMANI Ghana argues that should the deal go on, TOR would be unviable for the long term at the end of the six years.

According to John Jinapor, the concerns being raised by the civil society groups are sound and demand government’s immediate attention.

“I think that government should pull the brakes, do further consultation, consult stakeholders i.e. members of parliament, industry players, civil society such as IMANI and ACEP and all those people so that we can together fashion a way of dealing with TOR,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express.

He further urged government to make the process a competitive one instead of the sole sourcing arrangement it had embarked on with Torrentco, to get the best partner for TOR.

“I think the government should take it easy, pull back, engage further, let us all come to a good consensus and a road map. If you want to do some competitive bidding process, let’s go through the competitive bidding process and set some benchmarks for whichever company is interested in handling TOR.

“TOR has some very good assets, their balance of equipment is very good. They have very good tanks, what you need is some level of efficiency, some level of accountability and some capital injection. And I’m sure that once we’re able to deal with some of these challenges the refinery will be back on its feet and will work efficiently and serve Ghana very well.”