NPP saved Tema Oil Refinery from collapse after NDC left it in huge debt - Mohammed Amin-Adam

He made the claim at an event dubbed ‘The Energy Manifesto Town Hall’ organized by the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) and its partners on Friday, November 6, 2020.

According to Amin-Adam, TOR was mismanaged by the NDC government, making it suffocate under huge debts amidst unaudited records.

“On the issue of TOR, we had the same problem, unaudited accounts from 2013 to 2016 when they left office. How could TOR be profitable at the time they left government. What was the basis for that profitability?” he asked.

“There was no single drilling rig in Ghana. If you don’t drill, how do you build an industry? The success of the oil industry is drilling because if you don’t drill you will not make discoveries. You will not even understand the geology of the area. Our oil industry was collapsing on us but for the timely intervention of the NPP government, we can now see the hope that our industry is going to survive and grow,” the deputy minister claimed.

He further claimed that the NDC administration left behind a debt of $345 million at TOR and the refinery could not operate efficiently, till the NPP took over to turn the situation around.

“We didn’t come and see any profit, rather we came to meet the debt. For example, outstanding debts of 345m dollars were found in the books of TOR,” Amin-Adam said. “About one billion Ghana cedis was owed to third parties and traders and financial institutions on their [TOR’s] books.

“If that existed, what profit did TOR make? How did they account for this outstanding debt?”