A member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Edward Bawa, claims the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is planning to hire a consultancy firm to undertake the decommissioning of the Saltpond Field.

This, he says, will cost the Corporation more than $5 million, although an in-house technical team constituted by the company is undertaking the same task for free.

According to him, the country could be facing yet another judgement debt if GNPC, under the leadership of its acting Managing Director, Opoku Ahweneeh Danquah, goes ahead to engage this new Project Management Consultant.

“GNPC contemplated the hiring of a Project Management Consultant for the decommissioning. Indeed, a tendering process was done and a consultancy firm was procured with approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

“However in a memo to the office of the former CEO of the Corporation, Dr K.K. Sarpong, the project team explained that a lot of the work had been carried out by the in-house project team and the remaining jobs can equally be executed in-house. This in-house delivery will save the Corporation more than $5 million.

“Indeed as we speak, about 70% of the work has been done by the in-house technical team made up of Alex Kwarteng (General Manager, Projects) and Albert Langdon-Nyewan (Deputy Manager, Reservoir). The selected company was, thus, prevailed upon to allow the GNPC to use in-house expertise to perform the task,” Edward Bawa said in a statement.

The Bongo legislator expressed shock at why Mr Ahweneeh Danquah who acted as Deputy CEO in charge of Technical Operations could not follow earlier agreements but chose to hire a different company.

He stressed that “this needless expenditure” will be blocked during a work programme hearing slated for Tuesday, July 5.

“The question is, what is the motivation for this line of action? One thing is certain – GNPC is intending to spend $5 million on an activity that is being done by an in-house technical team.

“Besides, the original company that was procured for the Project Management Consultancy would definitely sue for procurement fraud and the country could be facing yet another judgement debt.

“At a time that the country is contemplating going to the International Monetary Fund for support, GNPC cannot afford to be wasteful,” Edward Bawa argued.