<<Print>>

The Minister for Energy, Dr Joe Oteng Adjei, was the toast of workers of the Tema Oil Refinery yesterday when he paid a familiarization visit to the refinery. As predicted by the Daily Post in yesterday�s issue, he used the occasion to confirm the arrival in Ghana of one million barrels of crude oil in the next few days to enable the refinery begin operation. The Minister for Energy announced also that as part of measures to reduce cost, sitting allowance for board members of TOR has been frozen; members would only be paid transport allowance. He also revealed that the leave allowance of the immediate past Chief Executive Officer of the company, Dr. K.K. Sarpong, has been frozen. This announcement was met with a loud applause from the workers. Mr. K.K. Sarpong, an NPP apparatchik, is seen a the man the then NPP government used to try and collapse the refinery so that under the pretence of making it more profitable, they would sell it to themselves as was done to Ghana Airways. Daily Post Intel has also revealed that while the workers are happy that K.K. Sarpong has been removed, they want Mrs. Sophia Rosetta Essah, the Company�s solicitor and board secretary, removed too, describing her as K.K. Sarpong�s partner in �crime�. Dr Oteng Adjei described as sad, the fact that all the various state-owned institutions under the Energy sector, namely TOR, ECG, VRA BOST and the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company were so badly managed by the NPP administration that all they could boast of today are debts. He said while these state-owned organisations are knee-deep in debts, TOR is indebted to two of them, that is ECG and VRA. The Minister said the NDC government was committed to clearing the mess left behind by the NPP in the Energy sector since it was one of the reasons that Ghanaians voted it into office. He tasked management and the workers to work hard to justify the government�s huge investment in the refinery.