John Abdulai Jinapor, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, has said a revenue assurance contract between the government of Ghana and SML is a bad deal that seeks to enrich the pockets of greedy politicians.
Mr. Jinapor says the Committee’s recent engagement with the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) gave them an assurance that such loopholes in the sector are going to be blocked, and does not, therefore, understand why such dubious agreement has been reached.
His comments come after an investigation by the Fourth Estate revealed that the company is receiving payments for assurance work in the petroleum and mineral sector for doing no work.
Speaking to the media in Parliament Monday, December 18, 2023, John Jinapor noted that the Minority caucus is going to trigger the necessary proceedings to abate the contract until a full scale investigation has been carried out.
He noted the contract only puts money in the hands of gluttonous politicians who have no interest in the progress of the state.
“We will be moving processes in Parliament to make that there is full scale investigation because do not believe that there is value for money.
He said “this contract is a rip-off, this contract only ends up filling the pockets of greedy politicians [and] individuals because just a couple of weeks ago, the Mines and Energy Committee visited NPA and they made us aware that they’ve put in place enough systems to ensure that all the loopholes are safeguarded and that they’ve even hoot up with the Ghana Revenue Authority to ensure that all those appearances are catered for” making him wonder the need for said contract.
“Even more importantly, it’s turned out that the so-called 3 billion saving was nothing but a hoax. We cannot allow the taxpayer to be burdened with so much unnecessary contracts that only go a long way to fill the pockets of individuals,” he said in addition.
The Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu further reiterated the caucus’s advise to the government “that immediately that contract is suspended pending the parliamentary investigation. When we go into it, we will find out that indeed all those allegations are true, we will ensure that this contract is abrogated because it doesn’t serve the interest of this country.”
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