ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
PETROLEUM SECTOR Gas Issues Ladies and gentlemen, with regards to the OCTP field development, I am happy to note that the main project has been successfully completed and gas has been flowing from the fields since July this year.
I would like to state however that some of the genuine concerns expressed by the NPP at the time we were in opposition have been 7 vindicated.
We were concerned that there was no plan to provide the infrastructure for evacuating the gas to be produced to dem and centres including the Tema Power and Industrial Enclave which was going to leave gas stranded in Takoradi.
We were also worried about the high gas price negotiated by the government.
To date, we have made significant interventions that have addressed some of our concerns.
These include: a. Reverse flow project: To prevent gas from being stranded in Takoradi whilst power plants in Tema lack cheaper gas as alternative fuel, government decided to undertake a project that will allow for gas to reverse flow from Takoradi to Tema through the West African Gas Pipeline.
The project is expected to be completed by November this year.
This project has become necessary because at the time the commercial contracts for the development of the OCTP gas were signed in 2 015, there was no plan to fully utilize the gas to be produced although we were committed to a take or pay obligation .
This will ensure that excess gas in Takoradi is transported to Tema for power generation as well as for other industrial use.
Government is working with the OCTP partners and other relevant stakeholders to execute outstanding commercial agreements between the parties for the entire project to be completed on time.
Meanwhile, ahead of the reverse flow project, the partners agreed to construct a bypass facility to evacuat e gas to Tema and reduce the surplus in Takoradi.
The construction of the bypass facility is being finalized to allow for gas to flow soon.
The facility will also 8 provide flexibility in the gas transportation system when the main reverse flow project is completed.
b. The price of gas: The negotiated gas price was fixed at $9.8/mmBtu.
Although a domestic gas, the price was higher than imported gas from Nigeria fixed at $8.4/mmBtu.
The NPP government found this unacceptable and sought a renegotiation of the gas price on account of savings made from the project cost, initially estimated at $7 billion.
I am happy to announce that government has successfully renegotiated the headline gas price to $7.89/mmBtu.
This gives the count ry and bulk gas customers a savings of $2 on every mmBtu of gas purchased which translates into several millions of United States Dollars.
Ladies and gentlemen, t o recover more oil from the fields, government has approved an amendmen t of the Plan of Deve lopment (POD) for the integrated OCTP Oil and Gas Project.
This also paves way for the OCTP Partners to continue to evaluate the company’s reservoirs with a view to submitting in the coming weeks, options on how to d evelop and produce the company’s reservoirs as part of the overall OCTP Integrated Oil and Gas Project.
It will also ensure that an incremental upstream value of $2.4 billion in cash flow is created to be shared among the parties.
This enhances the State’s (including GNPC) net expected ben efits on a present value basis.
Also, since the original PoD was based on a 2010 data which may have resulted in less than expected oil recovery rat e, the partners have committed to use an updated reservoir model based on a new seismic data acquired in 2 016/2017 and more extensive production data in the 9 activities under the amended Po D. The new reservoir model has confirmed that the activities to be c arried out within the amended Po D will sustain the oil production and recover the approved reserves.
Government wishes to express our satisfaction with the level of cooperation and collaboration between the partners.
We applaud the commitment of the partners to achieving a success story in the OCTP project for our mutual benefits.
Petroleum Product Prices Ladies and gentlemen, the issue of petroleum product prices has been extensively discussed this week in the media landscape.
First and foremost, it is important that we acquaint ourselves with factors accounting for driving the current global prices which are; a. OPEC and non-OPEC agreements to cut global production to drive prices of oil up; and b. The decision of the U.S.
to reinstate economic sanctions on Iran.
The N ational Petroleum Authority (NPA) plays a supervisory role by determining the price benchm arks and ensuring that BDCs and OMCs set their prices in accordance with the Prescribed Petroleum Price Formula which is based on the components of the Import Parity Mechanism.
The NPA reviews the Indicative Prices submitted by each BDC and OMC for every pricing window to ensure that realistic prices are set by 10 BDCs and OMCs, and to ensure consumers are not taken advantage of in a deregulated environment.
It is worthy to note that price deregulation has led to keen competition amongst Petroleum Service Pr oviders (PSPs) thereby keeping prices very competitive.
Ghana is a net exporter of oil.
However, it must be noted that the government receipts from oil exports is not the entire total oil export earnings.
It is limited to Ghana government share of oil as prescribed in the Petroleum Agreements signed between the government and IOCs.
Besides, Petroleum Revenue management Act 2011 (Act 815) prescribes how government spends its receipts from the exports of crude oil.
It is therefore disingenuous for any person or group of persons to call for government to set aside the petroleum revenue law and use the oil for other purposes.
Government Interventions in Petroleum Prices Ladies and gentlemen, Government has used tax interventions to mitigate the impact of domestic petroleum product price increases.
The following are the various tax interventions implemented by government since March 2017 to August 2018: i. Removal of excise duty on 16th March 2017; ii.
Reduction of the Special Petroleum Tax rate from 17.5% to 15% on 16th March 2017; iii.
Reduction of the Special Petroleum Tax rate from 15% to 13% on 16th February 2018 11 iv.
Conversion of the Special Petroleum Tax from Ad valorem to Specific Tax on 16th February 2018; and v. Reduction of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levies (PSRL) from 1st December 2017; Currently the PSRL has been reduced from GHP12/Lt to zero for petrol, GHP10/Lt to zero for diesel and GHP10/Kg to GHP3/Kg for LPG.
The revenue loss to government on the removal of the Excise Duty and the reductions of the PSRL alone between December 2017 and June 2018 amounts to over Two Hundred and Thirty Two Million Ghana Cedis (GHS232 million).
The Impact of Government Tax Interventions Due to government tax interventions the current prices of both petrol and diesel a re selling at GHp512.00 per lit re.
The prices for the previous window was GHp490.00 for petrol and GHp494.00 for diesel.
This represent a change in price from the previous window by 4.49% for petrol and 3.64% for diesel.
Without government inter vention, prices would have b een GHp554.25 for Petrol and GHp 550.75 for diesel.
This would have led to a 13% increase in the price of Petrol and 12% increase in the price of diesel.
Therefore, as a result of government interventions, petrol is 9% less expensive than it should have been without the interventions.
Diesel is 8% less expensive than it would have been without government interventions.
12 The significance of government tax reduction can be judged from the fact that the total component of taxes, levies and margins in the ex-pump prices of petroleum products reduced from 40% in March 2017 after the NPP Government came into office to a current 26%.
Notwithstanding these interventions, the international market conditions have weighed strongly against domestic prices of petroleum products as international crude oil prices continue to increase and currently estimated at $78 per barrel.
Therefore, apart from the application of the Price Stabilization and Recovery Fund to cushion consumers, government has made progress in its efforts at securing a Government- to-Government oil supply arrangement to address the supply side factors of petroleum product prices.
We are hopeful that these and other measures government is adapting should be helpful in mitigating pr ice behaviour of petroleum products in the foreseeable future.
Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) MATTERS Since 2013, BOST was faced with serious financial crises due to mounting debts and financial indiscipline.
The accumulation of some of these debts arose as a result of the failure of the then Government’s policies.
This particularly arose from the inapprop riate “merger” between two heavily indebted companies, TOR and BOST.
The two companies had the same Managing Director, leading to the breakdown of corporate governance.
These developments also exposed capacity limitations on the part of BOST as its low tra ding skills and expertise presented demonstrable weaknesses.
13 A Presidential Committee tasked to establish the financial position of BOST recently presented its report which found inappropriate decisions and actions involving BOST transactions, financial indiscipline and recklessness; to be responsible for the poor state of the company’s finances and financial losses.
Some of the findings are: a) Unprofitable tolling arrangement ($5.5/MT) with the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Limited Between 2015 and 2016, BOST entered into a tolling arrangement with TOR, in which the refinery was to process crude oil on behalf of BOST at a fee.
As per the arrangement, BOST procures its own crude oil and ships it to the refinery for processing into ref ined petroleum products (e.g.
Gasoil, Gasoline, LPG, ATK, etc).
BOST then on- sells the products to the domestic and export markets.
The tolling fee of $5.5/MT was on the high side compared to the international average tolling fee of $3.5/MT.
Additionally, it was noted that crude oil was imported at a higher premium of $5/bbl compared to the general average premium of $1 - $2 / bbl.
The cost of processing the crude oil with all associated expenses in its procurement did not make this transaction profitable.
b) Lower than expected yields from processed crude oil During the tolling arrangement with TOR, the yields received from the processed crude oil were lower than expected, thereby the sales (Gross Product Worth) from the refined products was far less than the cost of crude oil purchased.
BOST therefore incurred losses from this transaction.
14 c) Some receivables used to pay TOR debts with Traders Because of the BOST/TOR alliance, some traders dealing with BOST were deducting some of TOR’s old liabilities from p roceeds of the exports BOST undertook during the period.
d) Trade losses resulting from under-recoveries BOST had a take or pay agreement with Trafigura and other traders, which far exceeded BOST’s capacity to sell to the market.
Therefore, in times of pric e drops BOST incurred far more losses because it always held high stocks of petroleum products in its storage facilities, creating under-recoveries.
e) Repayment of existing loans from trade receivables BOST was repaying most of its loans from their trade re ceivables.
Therefore, funds expected to be used for payment of product purchases were used to repay loans.
f) BOST overheads were paid from trade receivables due to insufficient funds from BOST margin About 60% of the funds from BOST margin payments were pl edged for the repayment of the Standard Chartered Bank loan.
Therefore, BOST was using part of its trade receivable to fund its daily operations (overhead costs of about GHS300M per annum).
This situation created a hole in its trade receivables.
The recent payments to Springfield Energy Limited by BOST is one of many claims made by 16 BDCs to BOST for product losses occurring 15 between 2013 and 2016 as reported by the Presidential Committee.
The total claims on BOST in respect of product losses by BDCs amoun t to $44 million.
The cause s of such product losses must be established to determine records of the storage of those products, those responsible for loading the products, the financial receipts in respect of the products and utilization of the funds.
Government has decided that given the extent of financial recklessness found by the Committee, a Forensic Audit will be commissioned into BOST operations from 2013 to 2018.
This will ensure that persons against whom adverse findings will be made will face the full rigors of the law.
The audit will also provide recommendations for the restructuring of BOST management, operations and financial management.
Full details of findings are expected to be received by end of October as the BOST Board informed in their statement yesterday.
Ladies and gentlemen, on this note, thank you for your kind attention.
SPEECH DELIVERED BY LADY JUSTICE GEORGINA THEODORA WOOD, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA AT THE 13 TH ANNUAL GENERAL & SCIENTIFIC MEETING OF THE GHANA COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS ON WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 23, 2016.
Theme: Financing Health Care in Ghana: The future of the National Health Insurance Scheme.
I have fond memories of my visit to this auditorium nine years ago.
I recall that at the time, the Ghana Medical Association was celebrating fifty years of its existence, an event at which I had the honour of sharing a few thoughts with distinguished members of the Association.
The uncharacteristic good humour, with which our esteemed medical professionals laced the opening ceremony, did not undermine the thoughtfulness with which they deliberated on grave matters relating to the health status of Ghanaians.
At the time, I was still learning the ropes in my new position as Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana.
It is therefore a happy coincidence that barely seven months away to the end of my tenure, providence has fortuitously placed me in a unique position to be in your midst once again, to address the 13 th Annual General and Scientific Meeting of our esteemed College on a subject as important as healthcare financing.
Madam Chair, when the invitation came through, I had hoped that at the very least, you would be so kind as to invite me to speak to some matters related to the frontiers of law, perhaps restate the readiness of our Courts to adjudicate fairly and expeditiously on all 2016 election-related disputes.
That would have offered me far more comfort.
Instead, imagine my consternation on realizing that of all things, I was being invited to address such an august body of luminaries in the field of medical science on the future of the national health insurance scheme.
Why doctors will invite my humble self to dissect matters of healthcare financing and the sustainability of a scheme that has at this point attracted heated debate and very strong divergent views is beyond me.
All in all, I resisted the temptation to think that a deadly medical trap has been set for me.
But if it is a trap, it is one I intend to evade, while tackling the matter head on, Madam Chair.
This is because health and healthcare in Ghana, their financing mechanisms and the sustainability of the scheme affects all Ghanaians directly or indirectly, including my good self.
It is perfectly right that you have decided to focus on such an important matter of national concern, which matters would ultimately afford the good people of Ghana opportunity to explore various policy options.
Under the health targets for Sustainable Development Goal three (3) for instance, specific mention is made of the need to substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries.
We know that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation, and so nations all over the world are in a constant struggle to navigate the delicate balance between funding the health needs of its citizens and ensuring at the same time that the funding needs of other critical sectors of the economy are clearly not jeopardised.
Madam Chair, on receipt of the invitation, plain wisdom, led me to leave the details of this specialist subject matter to you, the highly knowledgeable medical professionals and technocrats.
I reasoned that you have the capability, from a well-informed stand point, to do all of the following and even more; examine and digest the topic, dispassionately explore the issues arising, propose realistic reforms and achievable action plans and offer pragmatic solutions to the various challenges confronting the scheme.
As Chair of the General Legal Council, which is the regulatory body responsible among other things for Legal Education in Ghana and the general professional conduct of legal practitioners in our great country, we have, many a time, bemoaned the conduct of ordinary lawyers who mount the air waves, tout themselves as legal luminaries of international renown and speak authoritatively as legal experts on specialised areas of the law.
I thought to myself that the worst reputational damage I could inflict on my poor soul is to tread this dangerous path and speak on the theme as if not only were I a top notch medical specialist, but one with a sub specialty in medical insurance financing.
And so while I applaud you on the choice of theme, what I propose to do in the time allotted to me, is to make a few general remarks on the subject, in the hope that this would further awaken your consciousness to the important constitutional and legal imperatives of health care financing, its causal effect on economic growth to spur you on to give the matter the urgent attention it deserves.
Interestingly, this line of thinking evokes the following pertinent question: is the right to quality healthcare a fundamental human right?
Some of the preliminary ideas that I intend to share with you are basic and certainly well known to you.
It may be likened to preaching the gospel to the already saved.
But over forty years of life in public service, has taught me that it is not too irksome to re- state or re-emphasise matters that may appear rudimentary.
Instructively, it is when we have grown weary of going over the same important matters over and over again; because it appears no one seems to be listening or paying attention to what we are saying, that a reminder of some basic truisms refreshes our minds of our responsibility to God and country, and consequently galvanises us into action.
And so let me start by acknowledging the debt of gratitude we as a people owe to our medical professionals, who clearly are part of the success story of whatever collectively as a nation, we have been able to achieve by way of development.
Why do I say so?
There certainly is a correlation between the concept of health in its broadest sense, which I have come to understand as a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being, including the absence of illnesses- and economic growth and development.
Health is thus an asset, perhaps the greatest asset in life.
Thus, one of the critical reform initiatives we have undertaken in the Judicial Service, is the establishment of medical facilities in Accra and Kumasi to attend to the health needs of not only judges, staff and their dependents, legal professionals, but court users who may find themselves in one medical difficulty or the other, when they attend court, a venture, which as you are acutely aware, is highly stressful.
The well- furnished and re-sourced facility in the new forty- two court roomed complex as well as the annex in the Supreme Court Building in Accra, is manned by a medical doctor and a full complement of other health professionals.
We thank the Ministry of Health for the support and assistance in this direction.
The economic burden arising from illnesses negatively impacts economic growth in the family and by logical extension the national setting.
Naturally, a healthy family is more likely to utilize income from both parents, to provide good education for their equally healthy children, whose future is thus assured.
It is therefore important that nations craft and implement policies to invest in health schemes for the benefit of citizens either through private medical insurance or state sponsored insurance policies.
To put things in context, let me share with you a true story I heard happened three weeks ago.
A man by name Kofi, a driver by profession, had noticed two tennis ball sized swellings in his groin.
His wife initially guessed that he had hernia.
With religious zeal, he refused the diagnosis.
But there was something more to his resistance; hernia implied a surgical repair and the repair of two hernias will attract a prohibitive cost, far beyond his means.
So he simply refused the diagnosis, waiting for the day his hernia will become complicated and then at the point of care, be required to cough out the full cost of the surgery.
Thankfully, good reason prevailed, and he has taken steps to register under the national health insurance scheme.
Kofi, is eventually hoping to have his hernia repaired for a fraction of what it would have cost him otherwise, without insurance.
And this is if he does not strangulate while waiting the mandatory one month it takes under the law to render his card eligible!
This story is important because it cuts to the core of the intent of the financial risk pool that health insurance schemes the world over represent.
Madam Chair, we know that the rapid expansion of public sector health services after independence led to an increase in access to health care, which was provided free at the point of use.
Declining economic fortunes in the 1970s with attendant underfunding of health services led to declining quality with cost increasingly becoming a barrier to access to quality care.
Health care financing then progressed through user fees (out-of-pocket payment popularly known as cash and carry) in the 1980s to the establishment of Community Health Insurance Schemes (a devolved national health insurance scheme) under Act 650 and currently to the centralised NHIS scheme under Act 852 of 2012.
Madam Chair, it is worth emphasising that health service provision is a constitutional duty of the State.
It derives its legal underpinnings in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, under the Directive Principles of State Policy, Article 34, (2) which provides: “The President shall report to Parliament at least once a year all the steps taken to ensure the realization of the policy objectives contained in this Chapter; and, in particular, the realization of basic human rights, a healthy economy, the right to work, the right to good health care and the right to education.
The State is further charged to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of all persons in employment, and shall establish the basis for the full deployment of the creative potential of all Ghanaians.
Article 36 (10).
Act 650 and later Act 852 provide specific laws on the establishment and functioning of a national health insurance system.
The national health policy is based on the principles of “Health for All” and Ghana’s Primary Health Care (PHC) strategy provides a framework for achieving this.
Ghana is a leading advocate of the current global drive towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) that promotes the two-prong objective access to quality health services (Access) without being exposed to financial hardship (Financial protection).
The national health insurance policy framework states that ‘Ultimately, the vision of Government in instituting a health insurance scheme in the country is to ensure equitable access for all residents of Ghana to an acceptable quality package of essential healthcare’.
‘…every resident of Ghana shall belong to a health insurance scheme that adequately covers him or her against the need to pay out of pocket at the point of service use in order to obtain access to a defined package of acceptable quality of health service’.
(National Health Insurance Policy Framework for Ghana, Ministry of Health, 2002; 2004) In the light of the above legal provisions, it is commendable to see the strides taken over the years by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).