An amount of USD4.5Million approved and consequently announced publicly by AKER Energy as sponsorship for Petroleum Commission’s Akufo-Addo-initiated Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity building (AOGC) program has “vanished” under unexplained circumstances after it was listed on page 75 of the NPP’s manifesto as a sponsorship for a program delivered “So Far”, when that is not the case.
As a result of the money’s “disappearance” from the Petroleum Commission, the AOGC program which aimed at training 1000 youth a year could not materialize in the manner President Akufo-Addo envisaged when he launched it in 2017 at the Ghana Maritime University in 2017.
Independent investigations revealed that to avoid any embarrassment to the government, the Petroleum Commission “quickly” organized only 5 people with different sponsorship from another oil company to train them and to show President Akufo-Addo and the media that the Commission is “working” on the AOGC.
According to news reports, the 5 people were sponsored by energy services company Baker Hughes with USD250,000 while the larger goals of the program remains unachieved and questions unanswered by Petroleum Commission led by Mr. Egbert Faibille Jnr.
These issues all came to light after Mr. Francis Apenteng Bonsu, a Researcher drew attention to the Petroleum Commission’s failure with the AOGC program which he said would have been a “huge game changer” for the Akufo-Addo government and even better than NABCO if it had been delivered well.
Mr. Bonsu said President Akufo-Addo must be interested in ensuring the people he tasks with jobs are delivering and not lying to him and the nation about their achievements when they only trained 5 people in 4 years and also cannot account for how the USD4.5Million from AKER Energy “disappeared” from the Commission without any training taking place for the 1000s of youth in search of opportunities who could have been trained by the AOGC program.
Akufo-Addo misled again
Knowing the AOGC couldn’t deliver to President Akufo-Addo’s expectation, the Petroleum Commission misled President Akufo-Addo and later the NPP’s Manifesto team by sending them “fake achievement” figures regarding the AOGC and AKER’s US4.5m, MyNewsGh.com’s independent investigation uncovered. The Commission did not only overhype its its mere 5 lone trainees, it also lied about training it was not even conducting.
While President Akufo-Addo has touted the AOGC as one of his biggest achievements, there is now very good reason to believe the AOGC has been a huge failure under the Petroleum Commission and the president is being misled with layers of lies and cover-ups packaged with PR.
According to news reports when launched, the program had the aim of training 1000 youth every year with the Petroleum Commission signing MoUs with several institutions for training including the TTU reported on at the time. Checks show the AOGC officials and the Petroleum Commission have done nothing about it and not even picking calls or answering emails for follow-ups after MoU signing events.
As at press time, We understands there was no training because the USD4.5M Aker cash had “vanished” from the Petroleum Commission without a pesewa being used for the AOGC program and no one is offering an explanation as to what happened to the money.
The NPP Manifesto falsehood
The Akufo-Addo government in listing its achievements in the 2020 Manifesto (energy sector) between 2017 and 2020 stated under “What We Have Done So Far” that through the AOGC program, it was training 335 people using the supposed USD4.5million from AKER Energy.
The Petroleum Commission, despite knowing that not a single Ghanaian youth has been, or is being trained in any oil and gas skill under the AOGC with any pesewas from AKER Energy, submitted this information to be published in the NPP 2020 Manifesto that it was training 335 people using the USD4.5million from AKER when it was pure falsehood.
Where did the USD4.5Million money go and how come the training which didn’t start or happen was listed as taking place, some persons familiar with the matter queried.
On page 75, paragraph 176 of the NPP 2020 manifesto it is stated thus:
“Currently being implemented under the Accelerated Oil & Gas Capacity Development (AOGC) Programme Under the over US$4.7 million programme, some 335 Ghanaian youth are receiving global-standard technician training in Ghana and abroad. In addition, some Ghanaians are also receiving training as technical instructors”, the NPP Manifesto stated which is palpable falsehood as checks show.
More to come.
