The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has come under renewed scrutiny after the Auditor-General uncovered that it could not properly account for the distribution of approximately 362.56 million litres of petroleum products marked between 2023 and 2025, exposing significant weaknesses in Ghana’s fuel monitoring system and raising concerns over potentially massive losses in government taxes and petroleum levies.
The findings, contained in the Performance Audit Report on the Operations of NPA dated June 24, 2026, reveal that while 15.42 billion litres of petrol and diesel were marked under the country’s fuel authentication programme during the three-year period, only 15.05 billion litres were recorded as having been distributed.
The resulting variance of 362.56 million litres of all marked petroleum products has raised serious questions about the integrity of the distribution system designed to protect consumers, safeguard government revenue and combat fuel smuggling and adulteration.
The audit also casts fresh doubt on the effectiveness of the NPA’s internal controls, despite the existence of multiple verification and reconciliation procedures intended to monitor every stage of petroleum distribution.
The audit showed that the discrepancies widened significantly over the three-year period before declining in 2025.
83.10m litres in 2023
In 2023, petroleum products marked but the distribution could not be accounted for by the NPA stood at 83.10 million litres (83,099,000 litres).
214.53m litres in 2024
It then surged dramatically to 214.53 million litres (214,534,200 litres) in 2024, representing the largest unexplained gap during the review period.
64.92m litres in 2024
Although the variance declined sharply in 2025, auditors still recorded an unexplained difference of 64.92 million litres (64,923,900 litres).
Combined, the three annual discrepancies amounted to 362.56 million litres, a figure large enough to raise concerns over the effectiveness of the country’s petroleum monitoring architecture.
Over GH¢300m in taxes, levies lost
One of the most disturbing implications of the findings is the potential loss of government revenue.
Since petroleum products attract taxes, levies and statutory margins imbedded in the ex-pump price paid by consumers, the inability to reconcile more than 362 million litres of fuel raises concerns that substantial public revenue has not been collected.
Although the Auditor-General did not quantify the potential financial losses arising from the discrepancy, estimates by this newspaper suggest that well over GH¢300 million in taxes, levies and petroleum margins could have been lost over the three-year period.
The unexplained variance also raises questions over whether all marked fuel actually entered the official distribution chain and whether all applicable statutory payments reached the state.
Millions spent on fuel marking
The financial implications extend beyond potential tax losses.
Millions of dollars paid to Nationwide Technologies Limited (NTL)—the contractor responsible for marking petroleum products—have become wasted expenditure where marked fuel could not subsequently be matched with actual distribution records.
NPA attempts explanation
Responding to the audit observations, management of the NPA argued that the discrepancy resulted from comparing two different operational datasets serving separate purposes within the downstream petroleum sector.
According to the Authority, marking volumes were generated from loading transactions captured in the Enterprise Relational Database Management System (ERDMS), while distribution figures were based on dispatch and delivery records maintained by the Uniform Petroleum Pricing Fund (UPPF) Secretariat.
Management further explained that the Petroleum Product Marking Scheme (PPMS) records every petroleum product marked at depots, including diesel additivated, diesel for retail outlets, diesel for cell sites, AGO Power Plant, AGO Rigs and AGO Subsidised.
By contrast, the UPPF Secretariat reports only petroleum products that attract the UPPF margin, specifically diesel additivated and diesel supplied to retail outlets.
The NPA therefore argued that the variance reflected differences in reporting classifications rather than missing petroleum products.
Auditor-General rejects explanation
The Auditor-General, however, found the explanation inadequate.
The report noted that the NPA failed to provide supporting data showing the quantities of diesel for cell sites, AGO Power Plant, AGO Rigs and AGO Subsidised that were eventually distributed.
Without such records, auditors said, the Authority could not substantiate its explanation for the enormous discrepancy.
More importantly, the audit found that the differences could not explain discrepancies identified in petrol volumes, which should have been fully traceable from loading to final distribution.
To buttress this point, the Auditor-General cited the 87.3 million (87,387,400) litres of petrol not marked but were distributed in 2025 alone to cast doubt on the explanation by NPA management.
Internal controls failed
Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the audit concerns the apparent breakdown of the NPA’s own internal control systems.
The Auditor-General noted that the Quality Assurance Directorate already operated an elaborate reconciliation process involving weekly and monthly reconciliation of marked volumes using ERDMS data, verification of contractor submissions, review of marking certificates before payment approval, multi-level validation by field officers, supervisors and the Head of the Petroleum Product Marking Scheme (PPMS), as well as legal review before payments were authorised.
Similarly, the UPPF Secretariat vetted orders submitted by Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) against records in the ERDMS before petroleum products were loaded.
Despite these multiple layers of verification, auditors found that neither the UPPF Secretariat nor the Quality Assurance Directorate verified whether the quantities loaded into Bulk Road Vehicles (BRVs) and marked actually corresponded with the quantities eventually delivered.
Neither institution reconciled data comparing petroleum products marked with those ultimately distributed.
The Auditor-General concluded that these weaknesses significantly undermined the effectiveness of the country’s fuel monitoring system.
Serious implications
The findings expose fundamental weaknesses in one of Ghana’s most important regulatory systems.
The fuel marking programme was introduced to prevent adulteration, eliminate smuggling, ensure fuel quality and guarantee that government receives the taxes and levies due on petroleum products.
When marked fuel cannot be reconciled with distributed fuel, regulators lose the ability to verify whether petroleum products actually reached consumers, whether taxes were fully collected and whether fuel quality standards were maintained throughout the supply chain.
The inability to account for 362.56 million litres of petroleum products also weakens public confidence in regulatory oversight and raises broader questions about accountability within the downstream petroleum sector.
The Auditor-General ultimately concluded that the NPA did not adequately implement the marking and distribution of petroleum products, resulting in persistent discrepancies between the volumes marked and those distributed—a failure that increased the risks of revenue leakages, weakened regulatory oversight and undermined the credibility of Ghana’s petroleum monitoring framework.
