Dr. Steve Manteaw addressing Journalists at the presser
Story by: Ishmael Barfi
The Chairman of the Alliance of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working on extractives, anti-corruption and good governance has described the ‘Gold for Oil Policy by Government of Ghana as a scam aimed to rob the ordinary Ghanaians of their resources to enrich a few in power.
According to Dr. Steve Manteaw, Government of Ghana decision to use a portion of the country’s good output in a “barter” arrangement to secure reliable and regular sources of affordable petroleum products for the country November,2022 is an act of fraudulent.
De. Steve Manteaw made these assertions at a press conference organised by Alliance of CSOs Working on Extractives, Anti-Corruption, and Good Governance on 31st January, 2023 in Accra.
Some members of the group at the press conference
“Though we recognize the importance of reducing the demand pressure on the US dollar in order to stabilize the value of the local currency, and to make petroleum products cheaper to consumers, we have serious reservations about the ability of the Gold4Oil programme to deliver these policy objectives”, he indicated.
Speaking further, he hinted that, their analysis reveal serious corruption risks associated with the programme, and which can only be averted through transparency and accountability in the entire transaction chain of the Gold4Oil programme.
Some of the identified risks he noted relates to absence of a buyer selection criteria, in respect of the off-taker of Ghana’s gold, absence of supplier selection criteria, in respect of supplying of petroleum products, non-disclosure of pricing policy for Ghana’s gold, on-disclosure of pricing for petroleum products purchases.
The rest being lack of clarity on how the transaction costs, under the programme would be covered and non-disclosure of the means by which government intends to raise money to finance it’s gold purchases.
Touching on the government receiving 40,000 metric tonnes of refined petroleum products under the programme which constitutes approximately 11 percent of Ghana’s projected monthly consumption of 359,000 metric tonnes, he hinted that, a number of fundamentals questions needs to be answered.
“Gold for Oil Policy is a Scam”- Dr. Manteaw
Some of these questions he hinted are how much gold was traded for the 40,000 tonnes of refined products, at what price was the gold traded?, How much gold has been purchased up to date under the programme? What was the source of financing for the gold as it was not provided for in the budget?.
“We strongly believe these are legitimate concerns that must be addressed in a comprehensive policy on the programme and if such policy exists, we demand it’s disclosure to inform public discourse”, he reiterated.
Meanwhile he has disclosed that investor appetite for Ghana’s petroleum sector has waned significantly since the last petroleum agreement was awarded to ExxonMobil.
According to him, between 2009 and 2023, the Ministry of Energy and the Petroleum Commission attended 21 conferences and roadshows in America, Europe and Asia for the purpose of attracting investors.
However, the road shows and conferences didn’t seem to have had any positive results.
To that effect, Dr. Steve Manteaw who is also the Chairman for the group, pointed out that, government must revise its strategy in wooing investors into the upstream petroleum sector.
“After initiating the competitive bidding process, the government set a parallel direct negotiation process which discouraged participation in the competitive process. we recommend that government should review its investment strategy as the current one is not delivering the desired results”.
He further added that, government needs to improve its relationship with the existing investors indicating that, “The government’s inability to manage relationships has resulted in ENI seeking legal redress in court. This situation creates an antagonistic relationship which impedes Ghana’s attractiveness to investors”.
The CSOs believe addressing these and other issues in the sector can free up much needed funds for critical government programmes and spare citizens the additional burden of paying for the poor decisions of government.
The group also recommended that, government should review it’s investment attraction strategy as the current strategy is not delivering the desired results and share this strategy with stakeholders for their inputs and buy in.
Alliance of CSOs Working on Extractives, Anti-Corruption, and Good Governance consists of Africa Center for Energy Policy, CSO Platform on Oil and Gas, IMANI Center for Policy and Education, ISODEC, Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Tax Justice Coalition, Natural Resource Governance Institute, ACT Africa and iWatch Africa.
Source: www.thenewindependentonline.com
