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Every Ghanaian Will Benefit From BOST If . . . - MD Raises Concerns

The Managing Director of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company, Mr Edwin Alfred Provencal at the end-of-year media engagement has outlined some concerns of BOST which inure to the benefit of every Ghanaian when they are addressed.

According to him, every Ghanaian stands to benefit from the operations of BOST when the company is retooled with adequate support from the right shareholders to make its work become very effective.

In an interview with Peacefmonline.com, Mr Edwin Provencal said that the price build-up has transportation cost and so when BOST works very well, the transportation will be efficient and bring lower cost and lower taxes to the consumer.

He noted that BOST being a state agency can partner other agencies like Go Energy and GOIL to import products in volumes as they together carry about more than half of the market in the industry to impact positively on the taxpayer who buys fuel every day.

“When BOST works very well, BOST is a state agency and it can partner other agencies like Go Energy and Goil and together, we carry about more than half of the market in the industry. So when we come together and we import products, with those volumes, we will benefit from the economics of scales. Those economies of scales can eventually impact positively on the taxpayer who buys fuel every day,” he explained.

He further indicated that BOST will be able to achieve its mandate in terms of petroleum security when it works very well; thus, when the company has a lot of fuel in the system, whenever prices go up, BOST can still cushion the Ghanaian taxpayer.

“ . . when BOST works very well, our mandate in terms of petroleum security will be achieved. That means that we will have a lot of fuel in our system. If we have a lot of fuel being stored, at the juncture when prices go up we can still cushion the Ghanaian taxpayer. When prices go down, we can still reap the thing back because the market is that there are ups and downs. When BOST works very well, we will be able to cushion the taxpayer when prices go up,” he articulated.

Highlighting on the way forward to make BOST work effectively, the Managing Director of BOST said that the company needs the support of the right stakeholders, efficient regulation and access to funds to make the company work very well to inure to the benefit of the taxpayer.

“What we need to make BOST work very well is the support of the right stakeholders. It is true we got an increased in BOST margin, but the increase was not what we asked for. So, if we are to get to that point in 1 year, it will take us about 4 to 5 years to get to that point”.

“Another point is regulation; if we are regulated efficiently enough, we will get there quicker. Access to funds is another way to make BOST work very well. Access to funds is the function of so many things; it is the function of management capability, balance sheet, the trust the owners of surplus cash have for you; today, we are not there yet”.

“We are on a journey; we hope to get there quicker and if we get there quicker, we may have access to the right partners, the right institutions to give us the needed funds to grow this entity we call BOST. I believe within the next two to three years we should be there but we can get there faster,” he noted.

BOST Gets New HR Consultant

Mr. Augustine Appiah is an accomplished Agile Human Resource Management Consultant and Practitioner with a strong passion for HR Leadership, Guidance, Coaching, and Business Change Consultancy to drive profitability. He has over 15 years of Strategic Human Resource Management experience, leading major HR transformation and Business improvement initiatives. He has served in both local and international Senior Executive roles, leading HR teams to deliver the “People Agenda” across United Kingdom, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Augustine has worked extensively with C-Suite Executives including CEOs, Directors and Leaders to formulate and implement strategies, budgets, policies and procedures relating to strategic talent management and development, and building agile and efficiency driven businesses. He has also reviewed and developed various FTE/Outsource Models, consulted on labour and union relations and spearheaded building relevant HR governance structures that has ensured consistent business growth.

His areas of specialty includes; Strategic Talent Management, HR Business Partnering, Learning, Psychosocial and Psychometric Interventions, Executive Coaching, Employee and Union Relations and Organizational Effectiveness and Change. He has a strong interest in HR Value Creation.

He holds an MPhil in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and a BA in Psychology from the University of Ghana. Augustine is a Certified Executive Coach from College of Executive Coaching, USA and holds HR Certifications from INSEAD, France and from IMD, Switzerland.

Augustine is also involved in a number of charitable projects across Ghana.

BOST CORONA VIRUS SAFETY PROTOCOLS

corona saftey 1. Staff and Visitors should adhere to the Safety Protocols of the Company;
✓ Temperature checks.
✓ Frequent washing of hands with soap under running water for at least 20 seconds. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 70% alcohol when soap and running water are unavailable.
✓ Mandatory wearing of nose mask at all workplaces.

2. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth without washing your hands.

3. Practice good respiratory etiquette, including covering coughs and sneezes with paper tissue or bent elbow. Dispose tissue immediately after use.

4. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Stay home if you are sick or report to the nearest health facility.

5. Call any BOST healthcare facility provider or the Manager, HSSEQ when you have serious health condition including difficulty in breathing, giving them details of your recent travel and other symptoms.

6. Staff and visitors are to adhere to work station social/physical distancing of at least 2 meters (6 feet) from each other and remain out of “congregate settings” as much as possible.

7. No visitor should go beyond the ground floor reception at the head office and other designated areas at the various depots/facilities;

8. Staff are to meet their visitors in meeting room one (1) at the head office and the designated areas at the respective depots;

9. Avoid face-to-face meetings, giving preference to phone calls, email or virtual meetings. If you need to organize face-to-face meetings, make provision to allow the prescribed spacing to prevent possible infection. For virtual meetings, kindly liaise with IT for zoom setup.

10. Any staff or visitor with suspected/confirmed Corona Virus symptoms at BOST facilities/depots will be isolated immediately for treatment

NPA Directs OMCs to Increase BOST Margin on Fuel by 3 Pesewas Effective June 1

download 4 The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has directed Oil Marketing Companies to increase the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST) margin on petroleum products by three pesewas to six pesewas effective June 1.

A May 29 memo sent to the Oil Marketing Companies indicated that the firms were all to review the BOST margin in their Price Build Up (PBU) of Petroleum products effective June 1, 2020, to the new amount.

According to the momo, cited by JoyBusiness, the development is in line with a decision taken by Cabinet and Communicated to the National Petroleum Authority. The communique said all the various petroleum products from Petrol at Kore Mines are expected to apply the new levy of 6 pesewas.

Background

The National Petroleum Authority was, in 2019, forced abandoned a similar move after it emerged that the necessary legal backing and approvals were not finalised before the said communication was made to increase the margin from 3 to 6 pesewas.

BOST recently began a campaign making a strong case for the margin to increase because the current levy is not adequate, maintaining that it was needed to improve the company’s infrastructure.

The Managing Director, Edwin Provencal in a recent engagement with some civil society organisations in the energy sector and a cross-section of the media in Tema.

Impact on prices

Prices of the various petroleum products are expected to be reviewed from June 1, 2020 in line with the two-week adjustments.

There were predictions that prices could go up by some significant increase based on this review. This would however be dependent on the margin of adjustment of the market leader GOIL.

But some market players have told JoyBusiness that based on this increase on BOST margin it would now be difficult to absorb increase as some of them were planning do for this pricing window.

Prices should have gone up in the last pricing window that’s from May 15 to 31, 2020.

However, most of the players held their prices unchanged because the market leader GOIL failed to move.

3 pesewas BOST Margin woefully inadequate, give us 9 – MD appeals

The Managing Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), Edwin Provencal is appealing to the government to increase the BOST Margin from the current three pesewas per litre to nine pesewas.According to Provencal, the increment will help them maintain the deteriorating facilities at BOST, a strategic asset of the State.He explained that about GHS150 million is needed to maintain the facilities.The BOST MD added that an additional $40 million is needed for automating the facilities and another $20 million for undertaking facility enhancement projects.Mr. Provencal made the call during a recent engagement with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the oil and gas sector.

About BOST margin
BOST Margin is a tax imposed on petroleum products used to cover the maintenance and operating cost of petroleum product depots and undertaking expansion programs at depots.The BOST Margin has remained at 3 pesewas per litre since 2011.In December 2019, it almost went up to 6 pesewas per litre but the decision was quickly reversed following intense pressure on government by opposition parties as well as CSOs such as the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC).BOST MD’s cry for help in a Citi News interview after the engagement and tour of BOST’s Accra Plains Depot at Tema, the MD insisted that the company really needs an immediate injection of funds to enable them protect the country’s strategic asset which plays a very pivotal role in the country’s oil, gas and energy sector.

“The BOST Margin was solely for infrastructure maintenance. In 2011, the BOST Margin was given to us at 3 pesewas. We are in 2020, some nine years down the line where the dollar value has depreciated by 75%, we are still getting that same 3 pesewas. That is why a lot of the infrastructure is falling apart. We have to do something about it. We cannot as Ghanaians leave this strategic asset to rot away. We are trying our best but we need help hence the cry for help, the cry for Ghanaians to support the increment of the BOST Margin from the paltry 3 pesewas to at least some 9 or 12 pesewas if possible so that we can deliver our mandate to the people of Ghana.”

He said from the 3 pesewas per litre deductions, they make about 8 to 9 million cedis every month saying “that is woefully inadequate looking at what we want to do.”“In total, we need about GHS150 million to fix our infrastructure. We are not asking all of that from the government. What we are asking from government is that increase the BOST Margin, let us be equipped to maintain the existing infrastructure. There are other projects we have to do which includes automating the whole depot which comes to over $40 million. There are other small projects that we have to undertake to enhance the efficiency of the depot which comes to over $20 million. For those ones, we can engage appropriate funding sources for some money because the project can pay back. But what we are asking from government is that please don’t let this infrastructure collapse. Our national security is at risk so we need that BOST Margin to at least keep this working till we get more money to gain the efficiency-based projects,” he said.

Mr. Provencal lamented that even if BOST could maintain its facilities without any support, it will take them so many years adding that “we don’t have that much time that’s why we need some injection because an injection will let us achieve our objectives faster else we need about seven years to be able to get there.”

COPEC’s response to the request
Meanwhile, Executive Director of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, who was at the stakeholder engagement meeting was of the view that “clearly BOST would need to enhance their operations” but said “you cannot ask for more resources if you are not going to tighten your belts.”

“The only assurance we need is that whatever government and Ghanaians are going to give BOST, we would need that assurance that six months or one year from now, if we were to come back here to do this visit the story will be different in that tanks would not be rusting or pipelines that should have been upgraded are not done.”

Executive Director of COPEC, Duncan Amoah
“We are tempted to say that the new BOST agenda that the new MD is introducing could go far on condition that he would stick and do as he says, on condition that other politicians will stay away and allowing the free hand to operate professionally, on condition that BOST itself will be disciplined in order that some of the superfluous expenses are curtailed so that whatever resources they get they can put to good investments for Ghanaians. We have said that once BOST is sound, the incessant increases in fuel that we see could be managed,” he said in a Citi News interview.

Energy Security

Nana Amoasi VII, the Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security (IES) who also spoke to Citi News said there should be a proper governance structure for the utilization of additional fund support from government should the BOST Margin be increased.“They presented the BOST case where they said they were underutilizing their asset and most of their infrastructure are in bad states. These are infrastructure funded by Ghanaians so when you see them going waste, it becomes a source of concern. Their request is a good call. Our concern is that will there be a governance structure for the money to be put to good use? Because many a time we see BOST apply all these funds inefficiently. But if they mean what they say, then it is a good course for Ghanaians,” the IES Director said.

Nana Amoasi VII, the Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security

About BOST

BOST was incorporated in December 1993 as a private limited liability company under the Companies Act,1963 (Act 179) with the Government of Ghana as the sole shareholder.Its duties are to among other things to develop a network of storage tanks, pipelines and other bulk transportation infrastructure throughout the country, rent or lease out part of the storage facilities to enable it generate income as well as keep strategic reserve stocks for Ghana.It currently has six petroleum demand strategic zones and manages depots located in Accra Plains, Kumasi, Buipe, Bolgatanga, Akosombo and Mami Water with total capacity 425,600 m3.