GNPC suffering from over-politicisation — Steve Manteaw

The Chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), Dr Steve Manteaw, has said the tension brewing at the country’s national oil company, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), is sending a wrong signal to investors.

He said the situation, which had led to the exchange of various memos between the board chairman and the chief executive officer (CEO), some of which had been made public, cast a slur on the corporate governance systems in the corporation which played a key role in securing the interest of the country in the oil and gas sector.

Addressing journalists at a workshop by the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ), with support from the German Development Corporation (GIZ) on the 2017 and 2018 reports of PIAC, Dr Manteaw said the current situation defied the corporate chain of command.

“There is competition for influence between the board chairman and the CEO.

The board chairman behaves as if the GNPC is an extension of the party domain he controls and that for me is problematic.

“GNPC is a commercial entity and, therefore, if we politicise it as we have, you make it unattractive for the company to attract the brightest and best and the good companies of this world,” he said.

He said the country risked losing investors because companies would not want to work with an entity that was heavily politicised.

“We may lose the opportunity to attract investors to work with us.

No companies worth their salt would want to work with a commercial entity that is heavily politicised. There will be the risk in change in direction and policy if there is a change in government,” he said.