Dr Steve Manteaw, Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), has said journalists who observed interactions that occurred between officials of GHEITI and the Atuabo Gas Processing facility in the Western Region, were those who reported that some helicopters had gone missing.
According to him, when the team reached the facility, they were met by one engineer and a supervisor who took them round. Dr Manteaw said it was during the tour that he asked about the whereabouts of the four helicopters but the tour guides were unable to provide tangible answers.
He said the journalists, upon cursory observation of the inability of the guides to provide the answers, filed reports to their various media houses that the helicopters were missing.
Former Deputy Minister of Power, John Jinapor, has, however, revealed that the four helicopters are at the Ghana Air Force base in Accra since Atuabo has no hangar to accommodate them.
“We procured four helicopters and they were commissioned by John Mahama in public. Ghana Gas does not have the pilots and expertise to fly the helicopters… The helicopters are not supposed to be parked at Atuabo… The Ghana Armed Forces was asked to manage the helicopters,” Mr Jinapor said.
Speaking in an interview with Moro Awudu on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class 91.3FM on Wednesday, 24 May, Dr Manteaw said: “We (GHEITI) took the opportunity of our presence in the district to visit the Atuabo Gas site, and had interactions with the management of the site. It was during this interaction that I recalled that some helicopters were bought for surveillance work around the gas processing facility given its strategic nature. I asked if we could see the helicopters, the director of operations for the facility had excused himself to attend to some urgent matters, so, we were there with the engineer and the supervisor.”
“When the question came up, they could not really and competently speak to it, they could not indicate the location of the helicopters to us. We went with some media representatives, and, so, as I pressurised management to show us where the helicopters were and as we were not getting the desired responses, they decided to make news out of it.
“Subsequent to this development, on my way back to Accra I made some calls to a few people in government and it’s been confirmed to me that the helicopters were bought and that because the Atuabo Gas Processing facility doesn’t have hangars, the helicopters had been sent to the Air Force base in Accra where there are hangars for safety and that whenever the gas facility is in need of their service, they will be deployed.
“So that is the official confirmation I have received, I have not had the benefit of seeing these helicopters for myself. I have been told they are there.”
Source:Ghana/AccraFM.com
