AFAG Demands Full Debate On Fuel Price Hikes!

The Alliance for Accountable Governance has lashed at the Mills' administration for the recent five percent hikes in all petroleum products saying all explanations put forward are absolutely absurd and unjustifiable.

The group, a civil advocacy pressure group, has therefore called for a full debate into the issues of fuel pricing and importation generally to assure the general public that they were getting value for money.

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) adjusted the prices of fuel products on Saturday, 1st November, 2009, following the alleged hike in the price of crude oil on the international market.

But the members of the pressure group believe consumers cannot be made to pay the full cost of the commodity coming on the back of harsh economy situation due to the policies of the current government. It has therefore called on all political parties to debate the issue.

Addressing the media yesterday, Mr. Steve Amoah, one of the many spokesperson of the group said 'the Government is only being faced with the reality of its grandiose and deceitful campaign promises and has no option than to pass on cost to Ghanaians'.

On the TOR debt he said, depending on whether you are listening to the President, the Vice President, Minister of information, the Deputy Minister of Energy, Hon. Moses Asaga or Hon. Alfred Kwame Agbesi, you get a different figure.

The latest figure of the debt was given by Mr. Agbesi only last week when he said on an Accra radio station that it was GH¢1.5 trillion.

“The variations in the numbers, deliberate or otherwise; makes it difficult for constructive intelligent debate on the subject. Be that as it may, we are of the view that, by the very nature of the oil business, it is not possible to deal with the commodity on a purely cash basis. It is in that reality that Letters of Credits (LCs) are meant to resolve. Therefore, at any point in time, the balance sheet of the company would naturally show some liabilities. Indeed, there is no business that has no liabilities on its books,” he noted.

He continued that “in our opinion, it is the ability to manage and leverage these liabilities that distinguishes a government that talks from a government that works.”

“At any rate, our estimates show that the inaction on the part of the government in managing the debt beyond continuous churning out of new figures, is costing TOR in monthly interests, amounting to GH¢20 million (¢200 billion)”,he claims.

This figure he said translates into some GH¢200 million (¢2 trillion) over the last 10 months, in other words, government's inertia alone has ballooned TOR's liability to Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) by an additional ¢2 trillion.

They therefore called on the government to immediately let the people of Ghana know exactly how much the NET TOR debt was, as at 7th January 2009, and by how much it has increased since they took over the management of the refinery.

AFAG also congratulated the workers of Tema Oil Refinery for their selflessness and patriotism in coming out in the face of threats and intimidation by management, to let the people of Ghana know that contrary to the official statements on the state of affairs at the Refinery, things were really getting out of hand.

AFAG also called on the President to immediately activate his promise to investigate the very serious allegations made by the workers of Tema Oil Refinery that some persons in Government were deliberately frustrating the efforts of TOR to secure crude oil delivery, in order to further their personal interests.