Alex Mould: We lost billions due to negligence in Hess agreement

Alex Mould, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has criticised the government of state capture in the agreement with Hess Ghana.

According to him, GNPC signed an agreement with Hess Energy to pay for 10 percent of the shares once the legal tussle with Cote d’Ivoire over the countries’ maritime boundary was over which Ghana was required to pay $40 million to earn the accruing revenue of between $2 to $3 billion but she failed to pay for the shares thereby forgoing the revenue.

Mr Mould pointed out that “since Ghana did not pay for the shares, the revenue went to a foreign entity, a situation I am convinced is deliberate for alleged corrupt reasons, I believe it is state capture because anybody who is truly a Ghanaian will not want 10 percent what is due the state to be given to a foreigner or the private sector, this is stealing assets from the state and giving to the private sector which is wrong.”

Even though Hess Ghana has since been taken over by Aker Energy he accused the government of scaring away the right investors as a result of what he claimed as “dubious” approach to investment relations and insisted that “the alleged “dubious” nature of transactions is the reason companies in the energy sector back out of tenders.” -citinewsroom.com