In his report to the Ghanaian parliament, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, the Auditor General (AG) of the country, stated that the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas) and four others have defaulted in the payment of $310.34 million into the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF).

The report was on the management of the country’s petroleum funds for the financial year ended December 31, 2018, and it was undertaken by PriceWaterHouseCoopers for and on behalf of the office of the Auditor-General. It stated that Ghana Gas owed $308.77 million for gas it was supplied by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The report is per Regulation 29 (7) of the C.I.70. As per section 3(4) of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011 (Act 815), the Auditor estimated the default amount due to be paid at $10.79 million.

The provisions of Section 3(4) of Act 815 reads, “where the liability of an entity to make a payment is not discharged on or before the due date, the entity shall pay as a penalty, an additional five per cent of the original amount for each day of default or the default rate established under any other law, whichever is higher.”

He stated that the failure of the companies to pay the amount owed had resulted in a loss of income for the country. “There is a loss of income which would have been earned, if the funds had been paid on time and invested.”

The four other defaulters, as mentioned by the Auditor General, are GOSCO/Heritage Exploration and Production Ghana Limited, Sahara Fields Energy Limited, Britannia-U Ghana Limited, and Swiss African Oil Company Limited. He said they owed a combined $1.57 million as a result of unpaid surface rental.

He recommended that the parliament ensured the payment of all debts with interest, per the provisions of Section 3 subsection 4 of Act 815.