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The acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, has called for a review of the penalty imposed on “unscrupulous persons” who set up fuel stations in unauthorised places, thus compromising public safety.
He said the current penalty of GH¢20,000 slapped on persons who engaged in such dangerous, illegal acts was not punitive enough to stop the practice.
“There is the situations where people could go and set up fuel station and later come to the NPA for licence when they have set up it already and the penalty for such activity is less than GH¢20,000,” he said.
Speaking during an engagement with the Select Committee on Energy of Parliament at Senchi near Akosombo in the Eastern Region last Saturday, Mr Tameklo said “So, if you set up a filing station and when you are caught and you can come back and pay GH¢20,000 and have your licence, then there is really no incentive to stop people from engaging in such illegal activity.
“So, at the right time we will be approaching the Energy Committee so that we can look at the review of the penalties because we believe that if the penalties are punitive enough it will discourage those unscrupulous people from setting up filling stations in unauthorised places,” he said.
The 17-member committee, chaired by Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, is meeting all bodies operating in the energy sector to investigate and enquire into their activities
It allowed the institutions to explain their objectives, workplan, financials and challenges facing their operations.
The NPA CEO said it was time adequate punitive measures were put in place to stop fuel stations sited in illegal places form becoming a threat to public safety.
“We all remember the event that happened at Atomic Junction and the panic in the whole system,” he said.
The CEO told the committee members that authority was established by an act of Parliament and whatever it did was prescribed by Parliament.
He said not only had Parliament passed the NPA Act but it had also enabled the authority with some legislative instruments to regulate local content and track various vehicles to ensure accountability of products and prevent product diversion in transit.
Mr Tameklo said the authority also managed the Uniform Petroleum Fund (UPF) which allowed it to keep prices of petroleum products almost at par without recourse to distance.
He said the authority, as part of its accountability process, had installed information technology devices to facilitate its operation.
“The industry has what we call the potential of unscrupulous business people and you need to find the mechanism to track what they do and how they move products.
Because at the end of the day, the NPA, through the UPF, pays for the cost of freight.
“Now, when you are paying for the cost of freight and the people are diverting the product, what it means is that the person will come and tell you that he moved the product from Tema to Kumasi and possibly when he got to Nsawam, he diverted the product.
