Ghana’s effort to digitise petroleum retail monitoring is facing fresh scrutiny after an Auditor-General’s performance audit identified gaps in the rollout, functionality and verification of the National Petroleum Authority’s (NPA) Automatic Tank Gauging System (ATGS), despite payments of GH¢648.62 million to the service provider.
The findings raise a question that goes beyond whether the technology was installed: how much regulatory value is Ghana actually receiving from a system designed to give the state real-time visibility over fuel volumes and retail transactions?
The audit examined the NPA’s petroleum-product monitoring operations from 2023 to early 2026 and found that the ATGS programme had not fully delivered the coverage and functionality originally envisaged.
Technology Investment Meets Implementation Gaps
The ATGS was intended to reduce reliance on manual monitoring by allowing the NPA to obtain information on petroleum volumes held and sold at retail outlets.
That objective matters in a downstream market where accurate volume information has implications for regulatory enforcement, tax assurance, product accountability and consumer protection.
The project covered 4,000 retail outlets. Yet, by March 2026, only 3,443 systems had been installed, leaving 557 outlets without the equipment. Of the systems installed, 1,813 outlets were fully automated, while 1,630 remained only partially automated.
That distinction is important.
Installation does not necessarily mean the regulatory system is functioning as intended. The value of an automated monitoring platform ultimately comes from whether it generates reliable information that the regulator can use to identify discrepancies, monitor sales and intervene when necessary.
The audit found that some installed systems were also not functioning. Auditors inspected 23 units and found 11 that were not operational.
While the sample does not establish the condition of every installation nationwide, the finding creates a legitimate question about maintenance and system reliability across the wider network.
Payments Require Stronger Verification
The most consequential issue in the audit, however, concerns not simply the number of gauges installed but the relationship between expenditure and verification.
The NPA paid Rock Automation Solutions Limited (RASL) GH¢648.62 million between January 2023 and May 2026 under an arrangement covering installation, operation and maintenance of the system.
The wider project was valued at about US$90.7 million, combining installation with longer-term operation and maintenance costs.
The Auditor-General found that the NPA could not provide evidence that maintenance activities had been independently verified before payments were approved.
Maintenance records for 2023 and 2024 were not available for review, while the 2025 maintenance schedule did not specify the precise work carried out at individual outlets.
That is where the value-for-money debate becomes sharper.
A technology contract involving installation, operations and maintenance should not be assessed primarily by the amount of hardware deployed.
The state needs to know whether the equipment remains operational, whether maintenance obligations are being fulfilled and whether payments correspond to measurable performance.
The audit’s concern is therefore fundamentally about contract management and assurance, rather than simply procurement.
As ACEP Policy Lead Kodzo Yaotse put it:
“The regulator has become a procurement powerhouse.”
His observation points to a wider institutional issue. As the NPA increasingly relies on technology, tracking systems and outsourced services to perform regulatory functions, its capacity to manage those contracts must develop alongside its procurement responsibilities.
From Installation To Actual Regulatory Value
The ATGS programme was conceived as a way of strengthening petroleum monitoring by replacing aspects of manual measurement with automated data.
That principle is not inherently problematic. In fact, automated monitoring can reduce opportunities for human manipulation and provide regulators with faster information.
The NPA has previously described automatic tank gauging and related digital systems as important tools for improving petroleum monitoring and system integrity.
The difficulty arises when the infrastructure designed to provide that visibility is itself incomplete or unreliable.
If 557 outlets remain without the system and more than 1,600 installed units are only partially automated, the regulator does not yet have a uniform nationwide digital picture of retail petroleum activity.
That creates a fragmented monitoring environment.
The NPA may have sophisticated information from one group of outlets while continuing to rely on conventional monitoring arrangements elsewhere. The result is a hybrid system in which the quality and timeliness of regulatory information can vary across the market.
For a national petroleum regulator, that weakens one of the principal arguments for a technology-led monitoring system in the first place.
Monitoring Capacity Also Matters
The audit raises another issue that should not be separated from the ATGS findings: the capacity of the NPA to physically monitor retail outlets.
The performance audit found that the number of planned monitoring activities declined by 19.82% between 2023 and 2025, even as the number of licensed retail outlets increased by 1.27%.
The NPA attributed the reduction to constraints including limited personnel, competing priorities, technical training requirements and security challenges.
The Authority said it had adopted a risk-based monitoring approach, focusing resources on higher-risk outlets and locations with previous compliance concerns.
That approach can be sensible where resources are limited.
But technology is supposed to complement that strategy, not leave the regulator with a new dependence on equipment that is itself not fully operational.
The real test, therefore, is whether the combination of automated monitoring and physical inspections gives the NPA a stronger ability to detect problems before they become costly to consumers, businesses or the state.
Consumer Protection Cannot Depend On Equipment Alone
The significance of these weaknesses becomes clearer when viewed against actual cases identified during the audit.
At a GOIL service station in Zuarungu, Bolgatanga, products passed marker tests during an NPA inspection in August 2023. Six days later, following a customer complaint, a further inspection found about 180 litres of water in the underground storage tank.
The audit also cited cases involving alleged substandard petroleum products at other outlets following consumer complaints.
These cases do not establish that the ATGS itself caused the monitoring failures. Nor do they demonstrate that the system is ineffective in every location.
They do, however, illustrate why automated systems need to operate alongside responsive inspections, functioning equipment and credible enforcement.
A regulator can have sophisticated technology and still struggle to protect consumers if the information generated is incomplete, the equipment is not maintained or field-level interventions are slow.
The Bigger Accountability Question
The Auditor-General’s findings should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of corruption.
The audit identifies weaknesses in verification, implementation and documentation. It does not, on the material reviewed, establish that the entire GH¢648.62 million represented money paid for work that was never performed.
That distinction matters.
But the absence of a proven criminal offence does not end the accountability question.
Public expenditure is also expected to meet standards of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Where a regulator cannot demonstrate that contracted maintenance was independently verified before payments were made, there is a legitimate governance problem even without evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
The NPA therefore needs to demonstrate what the public received for the money spent.
That requires more than confirming that a contract exists.
It requires evidence showing which systems were installed, which are fully operational, what maintenance was performed, when it was performed, who verified it and how those verification results informed payments.
Transparency Should Follow The Money
There is also a strong case for greater transparency around the commercial architecture supporting petroleum-sector monitoring.
Where technology and monitoring charges ultimately form part of the costs embedded in Ghana’s petroleum system, consumers indirectly finance the regulatory infrastructure.
That makes information about contracts, performance obligations and payment verification relevant beyond the NPA and its contractor.
ACEP has called for greater disclosure around contractors and beneficial ownership in petroleum-sector service arrangements.
Mr Yaotse argued:
“For each contractor that has been contracted to provide a service, whether the card payment system or the fuel marking, we need to know who owns this business.”
The broader principle is straightforward: the more a regulatory system relies on privately delivered services, the stronger the case for transparent performance reporting.
Commercial confidentiality has legitimate limits, but it should not prevent the state from demonstrating that public or consumer-funded expenditure produced the intended regulatory outcome.
NPA Has A Chance To Close The Gap
The Auditor-General has recommended that the NPA complete outstanding ATGS installations, repair non-functioning systems and strengthen verification of maintenance activities before approving payments. The Authority has acknowledged the findings and committed to implementing the recommendations.
The next phase should therefore focus less on celebrating installation numbers and more on measuring outcomes.
The NPA needs to establish whether the system is actually improving volume accountability, identifying anomalies, strengthening product monitoring and supporting revenue assurance.
That is the standard by which a GH¢648.62 million investment should ultimately be judged.
Ghana does not simply need more digital equipment at filling stations. It needs a petroleum monitoring architecture in which technology, human oversight, enforcement and contract accountability work together.
Until that link is clearly demonstrated, the central issue remains one of value: not whether Ghana bought a sophisticated monitoring system, but whether the system is delivering the regulatory protection and assurance for which the public is ultimately paying.
READ ALSO: Enterprise Life Marks 25 Years of Insurance Excellence
