1.0 INTRODUCTION

The recent announcement by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) that some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have violated ethics and standards, and resorted to cheating consumers at the pump, generated evidence to confirm the fears of many consumers of petroleum products. This also highlighted the need for the Standards entity to up its game in the protection of consumers.

ACEP warned at the beginning of the deregulated regime that strong regulations and standards monitoring was critical to ensure healthy competition that does not compromise the safety, value and quality of petroleum products on the market for unsuspecting consumers. The consumer is now being told to beware of cheating OMCs. Ghanaians deserve stronger commitment from the GSA that product on the market meet approved standards at all times. This brings to focus the demand by the public for harsher punishment for culpable oil marketers.

ACEP recognises that, today, the GSA lacks the requisite technical sophistication to protect the consumer. The laboratory of the Authority needs the government’s urgent attention to enable it deliver on its mandate as far as the oil and gas sector is concerned. For some time now Tema Oil Refinery’s (TOR) laboratory has become the standard bearer of the downstream oil and gas industry. This defeats the essence of separating business from monitoring of standards.

The GSA has been a credible institution in the sub-region, providing mentorship and testing of a wide range of products for surrounding countries. This credibility is eroding overtime with obsolete equipment and weak staff strength. This is what has engineered the boldness of some OMCs to cheat consumers.

Those OMCs know that GSA conducts biannual checks which in the face of the raging competition from the deregulation exposes consumers to unethical behaviour.