'No Financial Loss Of GHC1.5bn At TOR'

The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) says reports about its inability to reconcile monthly bank accounts which cost the state over ¢1.5 billion in 2015 are unfounded.

Dr Kingsley Antwi-Boasiako, Public Affairs Manager of TOR, said the reports which referenced the 2016 Auditor General’s Report wrongfully said an ‘Accountant of TOR’ instead of an ‘Accountant of the Tema Oil Refinery based Customs Outfit/Division.’

He said the latter happens to be the subject of an Auditor General investigation into the collection of taxes by the Customs Division located on the company’s premises.

According to the reports, the failure of an accountant of the refinery company to prepare monthly bank reconciliation statements resulted in the loss of ¢1,561,434,333.31 to the state, as contained the 2016 Auditor General’s Report.

The amount which covered the period between January and September 2015 was said to have been debited to the petroleum revenue account without the knowledge of TOR.

But Dr Antwi-Boasiako explained that “the Auditor General’s investigation is about the activities of the Customs Outfit which happens to be located on the premises of TOR, which is only serving as collection point of Petroleum revenues from the Bulk Distributions Companies (BDCs) and the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) by that outfit of Customs.”

He explained that the two entities are completely independent of each other.

“TOR is a State Owned Limited liability company which has KPMG, a private auditing firm as its auditors and not the Auditor General as wrongly purported in the story.

“The Auditor General has never audited our accounts, we have no business with the Petroleum Revenue and we have no such account at the Bank of Ghana,” he added.

He said they sought clarification from the Auditor General’s Department since the reports attributed its source to the 2016 Auditor General’s Report.

Dr Antwi-Boasiako added that, in their engagement with the Auditor General, the Department admitted there was an error in the 2016 Audit report with regards to an ‘Accountant of TOR’ instead of an ‘Accountant at the Tema Oil Refinery Custom Outfit.’

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