After Auditor-General’s Audit Exposes Major Oversight
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has committed to sweeping regulatory reforms in Ghana’s downstream petroleum sector after an Auditor-General’s performance audit uncovered critical oversight gaps in tracking systems, fuel quality marking, and depot-level monitoring.
The audit, covering January 2023 to May 2026, revealed that tens of thousands of petroleum delivery trips went untracked, while operational lapses and technical breakdowns persisted, heightening the risks of fuel adulteration and diversion.
Tracking Deficits and Fuel Diversion
Presented during a recent media training, organised by the Anti-Corruption Campaign on the audit findings indicated that 48,678 petroleum delivery trips were not tracked between 2023 and 2025, out of more than 1.09 million total trips recorded.
Although untracked deliveries decreased from 35,249 in 2023 to 5,330 in 2025, systemic gaps remained.
A significant issue was the exclusion of Aviation Turbine Kerosene (ATK) and Naphtha from monitoring because they earn no Unified Petroleum Pricing Fund margin, despite L.I. 2251 mandating that all products be tracked.
“The exclusion of untracked products created systemic vulnerabilities,” a civil society analyst noted during the presentation. “When product trips bypass electronic tracking, the risk of illegal fuel diversion sharply increases.”
These vulnerabilities were evidenced by 582 confirmed fuel diversions involving 9.78 million litres of petrol and diesel between 2024 and 2025.
Furthermore, during the 2023 transition from the Vehicle Tracking System (VTS) to the Electronic Cargo Tracking System (ECTS), 544 delivery trips were missed entirely.
Quality Assurance Discrepancies
The report also flagged serious failures within the national fuel marking scheme. In 2025 alone, 87 million litres of petrol were distributed without being marked, out of 3.098 billion litres distributed overall. Additionally, the state paid $2,688.09 to mark 638,500 litres of petrol between 2023 and 2024 that were never distributed.
The Deputy Director General in charge of Performance and Special Audit, Mr. Samuel Frimpong-Manso, warned that consumers are being exposed to substandard fuel that chemical marker tests cannot trace, citing field results that showed water contamination in retail fuel.
“When internal directives suspend quality marking without legislative amendments, statutory consumer protections are stripped away,” the representative remarked.
Infrastructure deficits compounded these issues. Out of 4,000 planned Automatic Tank Gauging Systems (ATGS) units, only 3,443 were installed by March 2026, with 557 remaining outstanding since late 2023.
Field inspections of 23 sampled retail outlets revealed that 11 ATGS were non-functional due to power damage, breakdowns, or poor configuration.
NPA Response and Corrective Measures
In response to the Auditor-General’s recommendations, the NPA acknowledged the operational gaps and outlined ongoing corrective measures.
The regulator stated that repairs across non-functional ATGS installations are scheduled for completion, pending broader regulatory reforms, contract reviews, and amendments.
To clamp down on the sector’s vulnerabilities, the NPA noted it has begun deactivating non-compliant, unlicensed Bulk Road Vehicles (BRVs) from its electronic database and is expanding its tracking infrastructure to bring all petroleum products under full regulatory supervision.
By Philip Antoh
