How NPP MPs Could Expose Corruption In GNPC's Agreement With Vitol And ENI S.p.A.

The controversy surrounding the agreement between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), and the  Ghanaian subsidiaries of the partially state-owned Italian energy company, ENI S.p.A., and Vitol, for the Offshore Cape Three Points Integrated Oil and Gas Project, can easily be brought to an end - if the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs criticising it, do some lateral thinking.

There are a number of steps that they can take, to help them expose any corruption that might have enabled ENI and Vitol to secure  the agreement with the GNPC, which they and many other well-meaning Ghanaians  believe to be tainted - if indeed such corruption did actually occur.

To begin with, since there is a Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC), why don't the NPP MPs use that forum to invite the head of Italy's National Anti-Corruption Agency, Rafaele Cantone, to Ghana, to meet with them as soon as practicable, to discuss that controversial agreement?

And since the Italian state has a 30.303% golden share in Eni S.p.A., why don't the NPP MPs also write directly to Italy's President, Sergio Mattarella, and point out to him, their suspicions that the agreement was secured through corruption - and provide him with a copy of the agreement, if possible?

If they also copy the letter to Ezio Mauro, the editor of the centre-left newspaper, La Republica, and give him a copy of the ENI-Vitol GNPC agreement, too, he will assign some of his best investigative reporters to establish the veracity or otherwise, of allegations that corruption may have secured for ENI and Vitol, an agreement detrimental to Ghana.

Above all, they must point out to all the people mentioned above, the fact that Enrico Mattei, who was the chairperson of ENI, who signed the agreement that made it possible for the Tema oil refinery to be built, and officially opened in 1963, by President Nkrumah, negotiated a win-win deal for that project -  which utilised ENI's "Mattei formula."

They can then make the point that in light of that past record of ethical conduct on the part of Enrico Mattei, patriotic Ghanaians insist that the present chairperson of ENI, Emma Marcegaglia, and its CEO, Claudio Descalzi, ought to ensure that a new win-win agreement is signed, to replace the present agreement between EBI-Vitol and the GNPC - if it is proven that it was actually secured through corruption.

If the NPP MPs take all the steps mentioned above, it might possibly enable them to expose any acts of corruption, which secured for ENI and Vitol, an agreement that in their view isn't in Ghana's interest - and demand that the Italian  Establishment should therefor force ENI to renegotiate a win-win agreement that does not disadvantage any of the Offshore  Cape Three Points Integrated Oil and Gas project partners.

By copying the editor of the La Republica newspaper, they will also ensure that their demand is taken seriously by the chairperson and CEO of ENI. And by copying the head of Italy's main anti-corruption investigative body, they will ensure that  any acts of corruption associated with the agreement, which took place prior to its being signed, can, and will be investigated, and exposed.

Good luck to them. Naturally, if the NPP MPs win their fight to get a better agreement for the GNPC, all of Ghana wins too. Cool.