Nana Amoasi VII, the Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security (IES), has launched a scathing attack on the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), accusing it of failing to fulfill its role as a vital oil refining institution for the country.
Amoasi VII pointed a finger at TOR’s bloated workforce, alleging that a significant number of employees are non-performing and contribute little to the organization’s overall productivity.
He called for a thorough review of TOR’s staffing levels, suggesting that non-performing employees should be dismissed to improve efficiency.
“I’m thinking that by this time, many people should have gone home because many people are sitting at TOR for two years and counting, and they get paid on a daily basis for doing nothing.
Basically, the main business of TOR is to refine, so if it’s not doing its core mandate, then it has failed, and the government has equally failed to put in place the right mechanisms to ensure that TOR is working,” Amoasi VII asserted.
His comments come in the wake of a petition filed by the General Transport, Petroleum, and Chemical Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Ghana, urging the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Adjebeng, to investigate the lease agreement between TOR and Torentco Asset Management Limited.
The union’s petition, dated October 19, alleged that the lease agreement is shrouded in irregularities and that the individuals behind Torentco Asset Management Limited, now Tema Energy and Processing Limited, have engaged in misrepresentation to induce TOR workers into accepting a 20% shareholding in the company.
Amoasi VII further stressed the need for any entity seeking to acquire or manage TOR to possess the requisite technical expertise and financial capability to effectively run the refinery. He emphasized that financial support is crucial to upgrading TOR’s facilities and making it competitive in the regional refining landscape.
“One purpose of providing the needed financing to support the operations of TOR is to be able to upgrade the TOR system and make it more competitive with respect to new refineries around the region. I think the critical factors to partner with TOR include financial and technical capacities,” he said in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM.
He urged the government to conduct thorough due diligence checks on any potential partners for TOR to ensure the refinery’s future success.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame, says his office is not in a position to vouch for the credibility of the Torentco Asset Management Limited (TAML) as a lessee of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
