The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority, NPA, Hassan Tampuli, has announced that discussions are underway which will lead to the establishment of a specialized office that will prosecute people in the downstream petroleum sector, whose activities negatively impacts expected revenue for national development.
During the recent 2020 budget presentation to Parliament, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, said the NPA would be given additional powers to enable them sanction players in the industry who are determined to cheat the system.
Speaking at this year’s Africa Refiners and Distributors Association (ARA) conference on the petroleum downstream supply and distribution sector, Mr. Tampuli said the industry needs to be purged from recalcitrant elements who do not want to play by the rules.
“Government through regulatory interventions have curtailed the menace significantly. Only two weeks ago, cabinet chaired by His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo, gave a fiat to the Attorney General of the Republic for the National Petroleum Authority to prosecute cases associated with the downstream petroleum industry. So in the coming weeks and months we will set up a prosecution department at the NPA and we shall be meeting these people boot for boot”.
Mr. Tampuli said despite the increasing growth in consumption of petroleum products, a lot more needs to be done to improve infrastructure across the regions.
“We do have inadequate port facilities and that creates some amount of congestion and the BDCs would be the first to complain, therefore there is the need for improved investment in infrastructure such as pipelines and discharge facilities to improve product distribution and supply within the country as well as neighboring countries” he noted.