BOST crushing, Supreme Court instructs it to cough out Ghc 28m, President must intervene

The Supreme Court has ordered the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited to pay a whooping 28miliion Ghana cedis to one of its clients.

This amount is in respect of an initial amount of 9.8million Ghana cedis and interest accumulated over the period that BOST refused to pay but to litigate.

Information picked by ghananewsonline.com.gh indicates that the apex court has passed a judgment against BOST on a matter that a board member kicked strongly against but the Managing Director (MD), Edwin Provencal and some Board members ignored good counsel and went for appeal/litigation instead of mediation.

Their appeal landed the state institution in this deep financial hole. Our source further hinted that they appealed although the company had a weak case.

The source continued to state that BOST’s account has been garnished for non-payment of the 28 million Ghana cedis though the party involved agreed to BOST’s payment plan when it won the case against the state company.

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We have also gathered that Edwin Provencal, upon assumption of office, immediately agreed to pursue the case in Court without proper consultation.

This is the second in a roll that Edwin Provencal, and others have caused serious financial loss to BOST by their alleged misguided actions.

They engaged in all these misguided decisions because they know they have nothing to lose but the poor taxpayer will bear the brunt through hidden taxes imposed on them by the state.

It would be recalled that in December 2020, BOST was forced to pay 5million dollars for land acquired in Tema after making 3million dollars deposit and never paid the rest on the instructions of the MD against all good legal advice for a negotiated settlement on the matter.

It is common knowledge that BOST has been largely exposed for paying huge sums of monies as judgement debts due for misguided actions taken in recent times.

Many people following happenings at BOST have concluded that the worst will happen if President Nana Akufo-Addo does not intervene early enough by sacking the MD of BOST.

It is also alleged that some of these legal costs against BOST were carefully orchestrated to milk the company.

We are informed that BOST currently has no major source of generating revenue to sustain the company and so it solely depends on margins government approved last year.

The margins, are also said to have been misapplied to pay orchestrated legal fees and debts.

In another development, the lawyer who represented the land owner in the case mentioned above who got judgment against BOST in December, 2020 has been sacked by his client and the client is now dealing directly with BOST.

By Onua Kojo Nkansah