The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has expressed concerns about the recent increase in the number of the reconstituted Tema Oil Refinery Board.
President Akufo-Addo, in a letter dated March 18 and under the hand of Nana Bediatuo Asante, Secretary to the president, announced the reconstitution of the board of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Company Limited with 11 members.
In an interview with Citi Business News, Executive Secretary of COPEC Duncan Amoah observed that this represents a numerical surge compared to the previous board members.
He stressed that this increase in board members could pose a financial burden on the refinery, particularly given its current operation below capacity.
“The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) has become a white elephant. It has not added much to our energy mix for a good number of years now and the expectation was that if we were going to reconstitute the board, it was going to see a new direction.
“Rather, what has happened is that old board members have been maintained. The one who resigned is probably the only one gone. From the seven initial numbers…this new reconstitution has added four to make it 11. If you ask me, for a refinery which is hardly producing anything whether we should be increasing cost, the answer would have been no,” Duncan Amoah posited.
“It is a bit frustrating and shocking to find that Mr. President wanted to reconstitute the TOR board and the best he could do was to increase the numbers from 7 to 11 at a time when the refinery is not exactly stretched or too busy with work or KPIs and for which you will need more hands more minds to think through anything.
“At a time when you will probably need the plant to get back to some productivity, we are rather increasing the cost of the refinery which is to increase the number of board members who would have to sit at a time to make decisions. It doesn’t look like we want to position TOR to be productive.
The Executive Secretary of the energy think tank believes “we could have reduced the number to five and still given them stringent KPIs and tasked them to meet certain timelines in reviving the ailing refinery.”