Professor William Asumaning and Patrick Kwame Akorli
President Akufo-Addo does not seem to be enthused about the conduct of the Board Chairman of the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL).
It follows a recent statement issued by Professor William Asumaning purporting to be responding to a supposed appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) by the president in which he sought to question the propriety and authority of President Akufo-Addo in making any such appointment.
The presidency was said to have replaced Patrick Kwame Akorli, Managing Director (MD) of GOIL with former Member of Parliament (MP) for Nsuta Kwamang Beposo, Osei Kwame Prempeh.
But instead of the Board Chairman to verify the statement, he quickly went to town challenging the president on the legality of sacking the MD, claiming that GOIL is a listed company.
The statement by the Board chairman was made in reference to a Ghanaweb publication of 24th February, 2017 titled, “Nana Addo Picks New Heads for Forestry Commission, Ghana Health Service and GOIL.”
But in a counter statement issued in Accra yesterday, acting Director of Communications at the presidency (Flagstaff House), Eugene Arhin, did not mince words in questioning the credibility of Professor Asumaning’s claims, insisting, “The statement by the Board Chair was unfortunate and completely needless, to say the least.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I wish to state that the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has not appointed a new CEO of GOIL,” the statement pointed out.
Under normal circumstances, he indicated that “One would have hoped, in the interest of best practices, that the issuance of such a statement by Prof. William Asumaning would have been hinged on concrete evidence in the form of appointment letters, and not mere speculation and conjecture by an online publication.”
He wondered what could have made the Board Chairman of such a big organization in which the state controls a certain percentage of shares, to come out to virtually question the credibility of the president with no shred of evidence to his claims.
That notwithstanding, the acting Director of Communications assured that “When he [referring to the president] decides to do so, it will be done in accordance with laid-down procedures.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu