$678,998 Oil Cash Unaccounted For

An amount of $678,998 realised from surface rentals from the operations of the Jubilee Field in 2011 was not captured in the financial statement for the period ending, December 31, 2011.

The said amount, which was to be lodged in the Petroleum Holding Fund, was not lodged; neither was it recognised as Petroleum Revenue Funds.

A report of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on the report of the Auditor-General on the management of Petroleum Funds for the period from May 2011 to December 2012, which was laid in Parliament yesterday, revealed.

Officials of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) conceded that infraction but said the money was not paid into the Holding Fund because at the time, the account had not been opened and therefore the money was paid into GNPC’s account and later transferred to the designated account at the Bank of Ghana.

The PAC report also noted that pertinent documents in support of funds received into the Ghana Petroleum Holding Fund (Holding Fund) as well as disbursements made from the Fund for the first four lifting of oil were not available for auditing.

These included invoices for crude lifted from the Jubilee Field, correspondence for GNPC equity financing cost as well as invoices for other income from surface rentals.

It was also detected that computations undertaken to validate amounts on invoices and documents received from third parties were not put on file.

Officials of the Bank of Ghana, however, in their response, said the above were problems encountered at a time the Petroleum Fund Secretariat had not been established as per the Operations Management Agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana and so various departments of BoG undertook functions which should have been undertaken by the Fund Secretariat and as a result, documentations on the Fund were filed in those departments.

Source: Daily Guide