The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has announced plans to file criminal charges against high-ranking officials of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) over an alleged corruption scheme involving more than GH¢280 million. The scandal reportedly occurred between 2022 and 2024.
According to Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, investigations launched in November 2024 uncovered a deeply rooted network of financial misconduct and abuse of power within the NPA. The probe revealed that senior officials devised and executed a corrupt scheme, exploiting their regulatory power to extract substantial sums of money from oil marketing companies and other players in the petroleum downstream sector.
The OSP claims that the corrupt activities were carried out through threats, intimidation, coercion, bribery, and excessive regulatory pressure, all aimed at enriching the perpetrators. As of May 30, 2025, the OSP has traced a total of GH¢280,516,127.19 believed to be proceeds of this illicit scheme. Part of these funds was allegedly used to acquire luxury apartments and homes in Ghana and abroad, along with 22 fuel haulage trucks.
Some NPA officials were also found to have used the illicit funds to establish and operate their own oil marketing companies, placing them in direct and unethical competition with the businesses they were tasked to regulate.
The OSP plans to file charges against the implicated individuals, including NPA officials, executives of complicit oil marketing companies, and their directors or senior managers, before the end of June 2025. Upon filing charges, the OSP will provide full details, including the identities of those involved, assets acquired, and items recovered