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Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has said the corporation did not collateralise its drill ship with a transaction with Societe Generale (SG). Appearing at the Judgment Debt Commission on Tuesday over the sale of the drill ship belonging to GNPC to pay judgment debt to SG in 2001, Mr Tsikata disclosed that the transaction with SG did not involve any security and the ship was not collateralised. He said what transpired at the time was a drafted mortgage document which had no indication of any amount being due and payable. He said the mortgage document was to show good faith and did not acknowledge any default. He explained that at the time when he was in office, the GNPC was sued as a statutory body by SG in a case brought against them in London. Mr Tsikata said, by the approval of its board of directors, GNPC contested the liability that was claimed in that suit, and contracted a legal firm, Bindman and Partners, and entered appearance on behalf of the corporation including a counterclaim. He said the counterclaim by GNPC related to the fact that, SG, who acted as advisors in the transaction acted negligently in their duty of care to the corporation, and it could therefore not accept any liability. He said, Bindman and Partners were however asked to step aside by the then Minister of Justice and Attorney General in 2001 and that led to SG securing a default judgment in court as GNPC had no legal representation. He said, SG at the initial stages prevailed upon the then Vice President Atta Mills and Kwame Preprah, the then Finance Minister to get the issues resolved but they were told that the GNPC was a corporate institution and government could not be involved. He, therefore, wondered why the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government decided to get involved in the case by dropping the legal representatives approved by the GNPC Board, whiles it also failed to get one for the corporation till a default judgment was given. He however recalled that in the course of the transactions certain payments were made to GNPC by SG, and it was willing to reimburse the payment made to them, so its legal team was authorised to continue the negotiation and it came down to 12 million dollars. Mr Tsikata also denied that the drill ship was not providing any revenue to GNPC, whiles the corporation was also saddled with liabilities at the time when he was leaving office. He said the drill ship was in good condition and was having a project at Mexico and with another one at India until he left office. He said the drill ship was bringing GNPC a lot of revenue and it was key in undertaking GNPC's ambition in deep water exploration, adding that, the distress sale of the ship to pay the judgment debt could not have helped realise the real value of the asset. �GNPC did not have liabilities only but have assets as well and Westel, created by GNPC, was sold for 120 million dollars and a company with that kind of assets portfolio cannot be rubbished. GNPC also had shares in Ecobank, and Total among others, which were of significant value and any effort to create the impression that GNPC was in debt was baseless,� he said. Mr Tsikata said section 19 of the GNPC law states clearly that the Bank of Ghana has the power to approve and monitor any foreign exchange account to be opened by the corporation and wondered why the foreign account that was opened in connection with the sale of the ship did not have the approval of BOG. Justice Yaw Appau, Sole Commissioner for Judgment Debt bemoaned the situation where public institutions are not allowed to work by political leaders in government. He said the law is very clear on how the GNPC operated and under normal circumstances there should be nothing bizarre in its operations, especially as it related to the sale of the drill ship.