The Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), has denied reports that he said helicopters purchased for the Ghana Gas Company had gone missing.
Dr. Steve Manteaw who is also a member of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), has been widely reported in the media as claiming three helicopters bought for Ghana Gas worth 150 million Ghana cedis, could not be traced.
This drew criticism from the public, and a reaction from former deputy power minister John Jinapor, who said the choppers are not gone missing, but rather under the care of the military.
Dr Manteaw in an interview with StarrFm on Wednesday said the media misreported a statement he made while on an outreach programme to check the Atuabo processing plant.
 “It was in the cause of this interaction I recall that some 150 million dollars was set aside for the procurement of some helicopters for surveillance purposes to protect the facility from any act of vandalism or terrorist attack, so it was out of curiosity I ask if we could see the helicopters and the staff of the plant who was with us at the time did not have a clue as to the where about of the helicopters, but certainly they were not on site.†He stated in the interview.
He further explained that “We paid a the visit to the company with some media representatives they decided to take it from that angle, I was quiet surprised to find some stories titled missing helicopters because in my mind the fact that they were not at Atuabo does not mean they were missing so my intension was to get back to Accra and check with the authorities.â€
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