Public Agenda (Accra)
25 February 2008
opinion
Our attention has been drawn to a news item in the edition of Tuesday 12th February, 2008 of your paper with the above caption which stated that "the Public Agenda can report that the wife of a doctor at the Ministry of Health in cahoots with higher level connections at the Energy Commission has flouted the ban on second-hand LPG bottles in Ghana.
The story continued that "this lady has with signatures from the Castle and Energy Commission, managed to clear and sell 17 containers of the banned cylinders with more containers waiting at the ports to be cleared."
Also claimed in the story is the statement that Public Agenda's investigation have revealed that "although the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) is refusing to warrant the clearance of the rest of the banned second-hand LPGs at the Port, letters from the Energy Commission bearing fake copy to GSB and other agencies but without actual copies being delivered have been issued by a top official with support from the Castle as a reprieve on the ban for kickbacks".
Your paper continued the story in the Monday, February 18, 2008 editorial and capped it with an edition based on the same falsehoods paddled against the Energy Commission.
We wish to state emphatically that the Energy Commission has no business in LPG cylinders. It is not part of our statutory mandates and functions. A cursory enquiry by the Public Agenda from the Commission would have revealed to you that the Energy Commission is not involved in the Business of LPG cylinders. Having said that, we demand that Public Agenda produces the letters from the Energy Commission which the woman used to clear and sell 17 containers of the banned cylinders with more containers waiting at the ports to be cleared. We further dare Public Agenda to come clean on their investigations that although the Ghana Standards Board (GSB) is refusing to warrant the clearance of the rest of the banned second hand LPG cylinders at the Port. Letters from the Energy Commission have been issued as a reprieve on the ban for kickbacks.
Interestingly, your story talked about advertisements sponsored by the Ghana Standards Board and the National Petroleum Authority in the Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times and Chronicle for three consecutive times to alert consumers and the brains behind the deal that the ban on imported LPG has not been lifted. This should have informed Public Agenda as to where to look for information on LPG cylinders.
We demand a retraction of the story and an unqualified apology from Public Agenda for dragging the name of the Commission into a matter we have no hand in.
I.K.Mintah
( Director, Human Resource, Administration and Public Affairs)
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