The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), an independent statutory body mandated to promote transparency and accountability in the management of petroleum revenues in the Republic of Ghana has raised concerns with the overall management of the country’s oil revenue, calling on the government to publicly explain how the money was being used.
According to PIAC, although the country’s law states that 70 per cent of the revenue should go into capital expenditure, the chunk of the money was rather going into consumption.
Addressing a forum of editors at Senchi in the Asuogyaman District in the Eastern Region on the management and use of petroleum revenues for 2018 last Saturday, Dr Manteaw who is the Chairman of PIAC, said it was wrong for the government to use oil revenue to fund the implementation of the free Senior High School (SHS) programme, which he considered to be a consumable.
He said if the current trend was not curtailed, the country’s oil reserves would get depleted while Ghana would have nothing to show for the oil discovery.
Dr Manteaw said although he was not against the implementation of the free SHS programme, he disagreed with the use of the oil money to fund the policy, adding that it contravened the dictates of the Petroleum Management Act.
He also wondered where all the revenue for the oil had gone since the government continued to maintain that the money had not been utilised.
Buttressing his case with facts, he said in 2017, out of the total oil money transferred to the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), USD$403 million was not utilised, adding that in 2018, another USD$252 million which was transferred to the fund was also not utilised.
Dr. Manteaw said per the explanation from the Ministry of Finance, the money had been lodged into treasury accounts although there were no documentations to prove that claim.
In his view, any unspent oil money in the ABFA account should be returned to the Petroleum Holding Fund (PFH) to ensure proper accountability of the country’s oil revenue.