The Government has been advised to divest its interest in Tema Oil Refinery, (TOR) to forestall the recurring ‘TOR’ debt cycle, which has been cited by all the governments under the Fourth Republic. Dr. Prince Akoto-Osei, a Ghanaian based in the United States of America, and currently a principal partner with an enterprise in risk management, made the suggestion in a long distance telephone conversation with the our Managing Editor, Alhaji Iddrisu Bature, last week. According to Dr. Akoto-Osei, this is one of the surest ways of solving the hydra-debt of the 100% state-owned refinery, the only one of its kind in the country.“Look, tell the Government to sell-off TOR, for me it is the wisest and best option opened to the government and people of Ghana," he said. He added that: “If Tema Oil Refinery is allowed to be run by a private enterprise; these re-occurring blame game by successive governments over who incurred what debt, and why and how it occurred, would be a thing of the past. The government needs to give incentives to private companies to build refineries [whiles] government collect taxes”. His call comes in the wake of the recently astronomical increases in prices of some fuel products by the Atta Mills-led government, and which is being resisted by the opposition, civil society groups and Trades Unions. The Government says it needs to take that ‘bitter’ decision to, once and for all, bring to a purposeful closure the issue of TOR debt and also, free the hitherto subsidies it pays on petroleum products to the social services sector. In January 2001 When President Kufuor and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration took-over power from the Rawlings’ National Democratic Congress (NDC), one of the challenges it was confronted with, was the TOR debt, then a little over US$200 million. The NPP government therefore introduced what it called ‘TOR Recovery Levy’ in the pricing of petroleum products in the country. However, by the time the NPP left office in January 2009, and as of 31st December 2010 the TOR debt, we were told by President Mills and the National Petroleum Authority, (NPA) that the debt has ballooned to about one billion five hundred million Ghana Cedis or US$1 billion, a situation some financial and economic analysts believed ought not to have happened. According to these experts, TOR, being the only refinery in the country with a complete monopoly, there was no reason why TOR should not even make huge profits. This is not the first time the idea to privatize TOR is coming-up. During the NPP era, Reuters reported that Ghana had approached two South Korean companies, including top refiner SK Corp, to sell a stake in its state-owned oil refinery TOR. According to the report, Ghana’s Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, said in March in an interview with Reuters that Ghana would partially privatize its sole oil refinery and two other state-owned firms that year as part of plans to raise $6 billion for infrastructure development. Earlier in July 2001, the then newly appointed Finance Minister of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration; Mr.Osafo-Marfo was quoted by the GNA to have confirmed speculations that the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) is to be sold soon but did not indicate to which company. Mr. Marfo said: “"No decision has been taken as to which company, local or foreign, qualifies to pick up or join the government and Ghanaians in the ownership of the refinery," he told journalists in Accra. According to the report Osarfo Marfo said TOR's debt was so huge that it would not be prudent for the government to continue to shoulder its responsibility in the face of the high running cost. The refinery was reported to be indebted to the tune of 2.3 trillion cedis. The Finance Minister was answering questions from journalists after presenting a paper on the state of the economy during the government's first seven months in office. "TOR will not forever be owned fully by the state; and we need to make this clear and invite companies and institutions who are ready and capable of helping us manage this national asset." Osafo-Maafo said his predecessor, Kwame Peprah, signed the initial memorandum of understanding between the Ghana government and Samsung International of Korea on June 27, 2000. "Therefore when we took office and decided to stand by the commitment of the previous government, J.H. Mensah and I signed the other part committing the Ghana government to the deal." Credit: The Al-Hajj