State oil firm Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has denied claims by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) that it spent more than necessary in 2015 as far as its budget was concerned.
PIAC had suggested in its 2015 annual report that GNPC spent $190,470,000 instead of its budgetary allocation of $126 million for the year.
In a rebuttal statement, however, GNPC said it “actually underspent its budget for 2015, approved by Parliament”.
“Our forecast revenue was $228.05m and our actual revenue was $126.86m. This shortfall was driven by the global fall in crude oil prices.
“Irrespective of this fall in prices, we were contractually obligated to meet our share of costs in the Jubilee Field.
“Meanwhile, compared to our budgeted expenditure of $291.90 million, our actual expenditure of $190.01m represented a 35% underspend,” the firm said, adding: “It is as a result of prudent financial management that we were able to fulfil our contractual obligations despite such a sharp decline in revenue. This is what enabled GNPC to make critical sector interventions, to ensure the smooth movement of gas to power plants, in order to stabilise the supply of power for industrial and domestic use.”
Source: ClassFMonline
