By Patrick Biddah
The Alliance of Civil Society Organizations Working In the Extractive, Anti Corruption and Good Governance, is not enthused about the current arrangement by govnement to trade the country’s gold for oil.
They are blowing the alarm on a possible fertile grounds of corruption in the deal, which have seen the bringing in of 40, 000 metric tonnes of oil into the country already.
In the argument of the CSO, this deal is opaque since it does not provide information on how much the gold was traded by the government.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, a Member of the Alliance and Co- Chair, Dr Steve Mamteaw indicated there was no disclosure of the pricing policy as well.
For him , the arrangement is just a headline announcement with no policy document backing the purchase which raises more corruption risk associated with the programme.
The Alliance which is leaving no stone unturned, has vowed to go all out to ensure that there is transparency in the programme in order to deliver accountability.
Enumerating some of the unexplained questions, he asked how much gold government gave out for the 40,000 metric tonnes of oil which was brought in and furtherquestioned the pricing of the gold for the exchange of the oil.
The source of financing of the programme also came up for questioning, when he enquired to know how is it being funded.
“What was the source of financing for the purchase of the gold as it was not provided for in the budget “, he stressed.
Ghana’s monthly petroleum product consumption is around 350, 000 metric tonnes, but this deal brought in 40,000 metric tonnes of oil which represent 11percent.
In view of this, Dr Manteaw called for broader consultation on the programme, in order to identify its potential impact on stakeholders .
“ We take this opportunity to also re-echo the demand of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative for broader consultation on the programme to identify its potential impact on diverse stakeholders including licensed gold buyers and jewelry manufacturers “, he pointed out.
“ We call on Parliament to examine the transaction and ensure that aspects that fall within the realms of international transaction between the state and international third parties are brought to Parliament for approval in accordance with Article 181( 5) of the 1992 constitution of Ghana “ , he demanded.
The press conference also touched on investment into the gas and oil sector.
Twenty -one (21 ) roadshows since 2018 has been embarked upon by the government, but has not attracted an investor into the oil bloc.
According to the Technical Manager of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee ( PIAC) , Mark Agyemang, who spoke at the press conference, this is primarily as a result of inadequate information during the roadshows for investors to make decisions.
In his view, any deal which is shrouded in secrecy will always create doubts, hence the no show after the 21 roadshows.
For him, the provision of a 2D data on Ghana’s roadshow instead of 3 or 4D data might have contributed to the no investment into the sector after the roadshows.
He also called for the need to know how much have been spent on all the roadshows so far.
