The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has denied allegations of procurement breaches regarding the award of consultancy contracts in respect of the Saltpond decommissioning project.

According to the Corporation, all award of contracts in regard to the decommissioning project was done following prior consultation with the Public Procurement Authority and in accordance with procurement laws.

The Corporation was referring to the award of project management consultancy to the Ensol-TSB partnership.

It explained that the Ensol-TSB partnership won their contract following a rigorous open competitive tender process, which saw consultancy firms including PAP Energy Limited and Luy Resources submitting proposals at the Request for Proposal stage.

“After evaluating all the proposals submitted, GNPC awarded the contract to the Ensol-TSB partnership and executed the project management consultancy contract on January 30, 2023,” it stated.

“The award of the project management contract to the Ensol-TSB partnership was based solely on the merit of the tender submitted,” it stressed.

According to the GNPC, Ensol-TSB showed it had a comparatively better experience in the upstream petroleum industry and scored higher in critical requisite areas for project management consultancy for decommissioning evidenced by the fact that Ensol had previously provided same services to reputable international oil companies.

“It is, therefore, erroneous to imply that the Ensol-TSB partnership was awarded the project management contract, not on the strength of its proposal but on the bias.”

It further added that the later withdrawal of TSB from the Ensol-TSB project management consultancy was not based on alleged malpractice by anybody related to the GNPC.

GNPC explained that TSB’s withdrawal, according to Ensol, was due to TSB’s decision to prioritise other contracts it had over the project management consultancy contract as a result of the prolonged procurement process from tender submission in October 2022 until contract execution at the end of January 2023.

It said anybody suggesting malpractice must provide evidence.

It also described as false the claim that “almost 70% of the consultancy work had already been done by the GNPC’s technical teams” before the award of project management consultancy contract.

“It should be noted that the scope of the project management consultancy is in three phases: pre-decommissioning, decommissioning, and post-decommissioning. The critical phase covers decommissioning which is ongoing and post-decommissioning.

“In recognition of the fact that part of the pre-decommissioning had been done at the time of the execution of the project management consultancy contract, the final contract price of under $3 million was consistent with the change in scope.

The GNPC assured the public of its commitment to ensuring the successful execution of the SFDP as has been the case throughout the lifecycle of the SFDP, taking into keen consideration the far-reaching environmental health and safety implications of the SFDP.