BOST made profit under NDC; stop propagating falsehood – Awuah-Darko

A former Managing Director (MA) of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) Company Limited, Mr Kwame Awuah-Darko, has refuted claims by the government that BOST incurred losses during his tenure.

Mr Edwin Provencal, the new BOST MD alleged that as of January 2017, BOST had a backlog of unaudited accounts from 2014 to 2016.

Mr Provencal additionally indicated that an earlier statement made by Mr Awuah-Darko in a 2015 press encounter stating that BOST made profit on its operations was false and a calculated attempt to mislead the stakeholders.

According to Mr Provencal, the audited accounts of the company showed a loss of GHS36.342 million.

But Mr Awuah-Darko, at a media interaction on Monday, 9 November 2020, described the claim as a false and palpable lie.

“I’m sure they are making all these claims because of the current state of corruption at BOST and TOR. Pricewatercoopers, an audit firm contracted by the government to audit BOST, presented a report that stated that we made profit.

“Would the government say the firm did a bad job in their findings and report? If that is the case, then they should call for their arrest. Why would the government deny a report that they paid huge amount to conduct?” he questioned.

Mr Awuah-Darko continued: “Looking at this report, one could clearly tell that all these claims are aimed at watering down the quality of progress TOR and BOST had made over the years. Under my leadership, we made huge profits and that remains the fact. For a managing director, who is paid GHS100,000 per month from BOST in salary and allowances, you should be able to, at least, recognise”.

Mr Awuah-Darko reiterated that the claims made by the current MD were false while giving a breakdown of the details of the accounts during his time.

“According to the latest BOST inventory report, it is obvious that claims made by the MD are false. As per the records below, the NDC-led administration bequeathed to the current government, a healthy balance of trade receivables of GHS564 million and product stock/inventory of GHS762 million and cash in the bank of GHS139 million, a healthy total of GHS1.5 billion.

“Total obligations under BOST’s trading account to all our suppliers stood at GHS1.4 billion, leaving a healthy cash balance of over GHS70 million or US$16.6 million.

“Drawing GHS100,000 per month from BOST in salary and allowances, you should be able to, at least, recognise these numbers in note 16, 17 and 18 of the 2016 audited accounts of BOST, as signed by Board Chairman Ekow Hackman,” he explained.