The disappearance and wrongful loading of products, leading to debts at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), have inflamed several social and mainstream media discussions.

For many, the disappearance of the litres of gas at the Refinery reflects the mismanagement of petroleum products.

Findings from the Interim Management Committee has revealed that some thousands of litres of gas oil and electrical cables worth more than ¢10 million have disappeared.

Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Policy and Research, Kwadwo Poku, believes TOR faces managerial issues that need to be addressed.

He bewailed the frequent losses of products, adding that the Tema Oil Refinery has not really improved in its duties, something he thinks could be attributed to the regular changes in its management.

“Tema Oil Refinery is being used as a political football. We all saw what happened in June. As a result, the Managing Director and the Deputy MD were asked to step aside.”

“There were reasons why they were asked to step aside because, for a year, Tema Oil Refinery was not moving forward. So we’ve had this over and over,” he told Benjamin Akakpo on Prime Morning on the Joy Prime channel.

He added: “The problem that we have as a civil society is that there need to be a steady hand; TOR needs to generate revenue and TOR needs to be able to pay its bills, upgrade the refinery so that it can serve Ghanaians.”

Between 2012 and 2015, TOR incurred a debt of  $4.8 million following the disappearance of LPG to a client. It also lost Naphtha – a type of flammable oil – to a bulk distribution company.

“The problem at TOR is losses; clearly, they’ve gone to the heart of the matter trying to resolve some of these losses because if I am not making money, I shouldn’t be losing money either; and that’s what is happening – they are not making money, but they are losing money,” Kwadwo Poku opined.

Energy Ministry’s response

The Energy Ministry has revealed it will prosecute the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) staff who would be found culpable after investigations.

Public Relations Officer at the Energy Ministry, Kwasi Obeng-Fosu, indicated that they are waiting to complete investigations to determine their next line of action.

He told JoyNews that the committee’s mandate is to hand over the finding to the Energy Ministry for onward submission to the President.

“You know you cannot misappropriate public funds or issues of such nature and be handled in any other way apart from the legal means,” he told JoyNews’ Evans Mensah.