Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has entreated the public to contend and demand verification for the amount of fuel they buy at pump stations in the country if they smell foul play.
According to him, there have been allegations by some persons that fuel bought at the pumps does not commensurate with amount paid for the petroleum product. Owing to this, he indicated that together with the Ghana Standards Authority, they have developed “Ntiasie Kuruwa” – a 10-liter-can used for verification purposes at the fuel stations.
“So, every citizen of Ghana is free to dispute if you are not satisfied that the fuel that you have been given does not commensurate with how much you paid for it. You can invoke your right to verification and the 10-liter-can would be used right in front of you to measure whether indeed, you’re getting value for the money that you paid.”
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid
Mr Abdul-Hamid indicated that the Authority has been grappling with a number of issues since the current management took over. He explained that the petroleum downstream is mainly bedeviled with the issue of “illegal fuel”, as people are normally concerned about the quality of fuel that they buy into their engines and machines.
“In other words, there are Ghanaian people who think that if you buy from GOIL, Shell or any of the top or known brands, then you are more likely to have been delivered quality fuel than if you buy from some other small oil marketing company… Let it be stated that quality assurance directorate of the NPA has standards for fuel quality in the country.”
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid
Challenges within petroleum sector
The NPA boss stated that he has over the period, had people ask him whether fuel is of the same quality across all oil marketing companies. In any event, he highlighted that it is the same consignment of fuel that is imported into the country that is fed to Star Oil, Shell, GOIL, among others.
“So, there’s nothing like any other oil marketing company having substandard fuel or quality that is higher or better than another.”
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid
Nonetheless, Mr Abdul-Hamid stated that there is the tendency for some dubious persons to import fuel illegally into the country and subsequently smuggle to pump stations. To this end, he revealed that the NPA has instituted some mechanisms via collaborations with security and intelligence directorate within the NPA to monitor such occurences.
“We have serious collaborations with national security, marine police, the navy and often, we are able to make arrests and our quality assurance directorate will come in and test the fuel. If it is found to be unwholesome for vehicles and transportation, but has value in other spheres of national life, we conduct auctions together with Customs Division of the GRA and the proceeds are paid into government’s kitty and then the people are punished for it.”
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid
Furthermore, the NPA boss lamented the fraudulence in its Unified Petroleum Price Fund (UPPF) claims. He noted that although the fund is what ensures that people in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern regions for example, buy fuel at the same price as people in the Greater Accra region, some unscrupulous persons are taking advantage of it to rake in some money.
Mr Abdul-Hamid highlighted that as far petroleum products are concerned, government does not allow transporters to put the cost of transportation on petroleum products.
“Of course, people will try and find a way to cheat the system…. So, the NPA has put in a mechanism for detecting such fraudulent activities and it’s called the Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS) that allows us to track every vehicle and allows us therefore, to see and monitor in real time…”
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid
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