…as it prepares to summon Finance Minister
Members of Parliament are demanding a for full list of projects funded with oil revenue and are considering inviting the Finance Minister to come and provide the legislature with a detailed lists of oil funded projects.
During the debate of the 2016 Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) report on the floor of the House in Accra, Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi said none availability of such details is making its work very difficult to monitor projects financed with the oil money.
He added that such details will also enable the nation reduce issues “ghost projects”.
By the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) law, the country is supposed to have 70percent of the revenues to support the budget and also has to be accounted for by the Minister of Finance, when he is submitting the Petroleum Funds report.
This according to Mr Akwasi Gyamfi, has not happened over the years and they are looking forward to changing that.
“What I have requested that is the current minister and other subsequent ministers, they have to report to the House, the full lists of all projects being financed with the oil revenue” he told B&FT in an interview.
The PIAC report is a subset of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) which the Finance Ministry has been accused of flouting aspects of it.
A member of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, Dr Steve Manteaw, had raised serious concerns about value for money on the said projects.
“The breach is in respect of a provision requiring the Minister of Finance every year to submit to Parliament, a reconciliation report on the management of petroleum revenues and in that report the minister is expected to indicate the stage of execution of all oil funded projects.
Over the period, since we started producing oil in this country, the previous Ministers and the current Minister have not complied with that provision in terms of giving us updates on the stage of completion of oil projects, “
The PRMA provides a framework for the collection, management of petroleum revenues in a responsible, accountable and sustainable manner for the benefit of Ghana in accordance with Article 36 of the Constitution.
It is also expected to regulate the collection, allocation and management by government of petroleum revenue derived from upstream midstream petroleum operations.
