Three MPs to drag GNPC to court on Monday over $700 million loan

Three Members of Parliament (MPs) are set to sue the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) for sidestepping Parliament in securing a 700 million dollar loan facility.

Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Anthony Akoto-Osei; Deputy Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Atta Akyea and MP for Menshia Mathew Opoku Prempeh will on Monday file processes at the Accra High Court challenging the GNPC.

Lawyer for the trio, Nana Asante Bediatuo, said on Newsfile news analysis programme aired on Joy FM and Joy News Channel on Multi TV Saturday that beyond the issue of GNPC's refusal to seek Parliamentary approval for the loan, there is a more "fundamental" one.

"The Petroleum Revenue Management Act requires that all of the programmes of GNPC are approved by Parliament in advance. Parliament has already approved the 2014 programme for GNPC and has made allocations and disbursements on that basis. This [$700 million] borrowing and the project that ostensibly it's going to be used for have not been approved by Parliament", Nana Asante Bediatuo explained.

 
Speaking on the same programme, Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako Junior says he has documents allegedly detailing how the lending company -- Deutsche Bank -- had been given rights over Ghana's oil.

GNPC has categorically denied that Mr Baako's allegations.