[ 2017-11-14 ]

Petroleum Revenue Mgt. Act breached for 7-yrs running – PIAC
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee
(PIAC), has lamented the poor handling of projects
funded with Ghana’s oil revenue without
adherence to the Petroleum Revenue Management
Act.

According to a member of PIAC, Dr. Steve Manteaw,
successive governments have breached the Act for
seven years running.

The Act mandates the Finance Minister to report on
all oil-funded projects in the year under review.

But Dr. Manteaw said the provision has been
breached by various Finance Ministers including,
Ken Ofori Atta.

“Over the period since we started producing oil
in this country, the past ministers and the
current Minister [of Finance] have not complied
with that provision in terms of giving us update
on the stage of completion of oil projects. A
project inspection undertaken by PIAC recently has
revealed that a lot of the projects are
non-existent and those that are in existent, are
deteriorating barely a year into their completion
raising serious concerns about the quality of
spending and value for money considerations that
underpin the use of oil revenues,” Dr. Manteaw
added.

Dr. Manteaw was speaking at a breakfast meeting in
Parliament today, Tuesday, where he made the
remarks.

PIAC needs prosecutorial powers

Some stakeholders within the oil sector had
earlier called for more powers to given PIAC to
prosecute persons who misappropriate Ghana’s oil
revenue.

This in their estimation could empower PIAC to
fully fulfill its mandate of ensuring the
efficient management of the nation’s petroleum
revenues for sustainable development.

About the Petroleum Revenue Management (Amendment)
Bill, 2015
Parliament in 2015 passed the Petroleum Revenue
Management (Amendment) Bill, 2015 into law.

The Bill amended an existing Act to provide for
the allocation of Funds for the Ghana
Infrastructure and Investment Funds, address some
issues with the Ghana Stabilization Fund, the
benchmark revenue projection, and further empower
the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) to
become a commercial entity and a strong operator
in the oil and gas sector.

The law was expected to also provide a legal
framework for the collection, allocation and
management of petroleum revenue in a responsible,
transparent, accountable and sustainable manner
for the benefit of Ghanaians in accordance with
Article 36 of the 1992 Constitution.

Source - citifmonline.com

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