High Court fixes July 15 to commence Dram Oil, Deloitte and Touche trial

An Accra High Court, Commercial Division, has set a trial date. The trial will begin on July 15, 2025. It involves Dram Oil and Trading Limited and Deloitte and Touche.

Dram Oil (plaintiff) is seeking $187.596 million from Deloitte and Touche. This claim arises from alleged negligence by the audit firm.

The plaintiff claims that Deloitte was appointed by the court in 2018. They were to conduct an audit related to a case with Vihama Energy Limited. This company had previously engaged in an oil transaction using Cal Bank Ghana Limited's facility.

Dram Oil's statement of claim was filed by their lawyer, Gaspar Lyle Nii-Aponsah. The plaintiff states it faced a commercial dispute initiated by Cal Bank Ghana Limited. This dispute involved a refined oil transaction among Dram Oil, Vihama Energy, and Cal Bank.

In 2015, Dram Oil won the suit against Cal Bank and others. Following this victory, Deloitte was appointed to audit payments due from Vihama Energy to Dram Oil. The court found that Vihama Energy received funds but withheld them from Dram Oil.

Dram Oil also claims that the 2015 judgment confirmed Vihama Energy had been fully paid under their agreement. Therefore, Vihama Energy was not entitled to any further sums, leading them to withdraw their counterclaim.

The High Court judgment on May 18, 2015, ordered an audit of Vihama Energy’s records. These orders focused on payments and receivables under the Tripartite Agreement with Cal Bank and Dram Oil.

Dram Oil complied with these orders by hiring Deloitte for the audit assignment. However, Deloitte later reported that Dram Oil owed money to Vihama Energy instead.

This report was adopted by the court after cross-examination of Mr. Daniel Owusu from Deloitte. Lawyers for Dram Oil and Cal Bank questioned how they reached their conclusions in the audit report.