Pre-Validation Workshop on Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Held
Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor has expressed concern about the inability of mining companies to increase the quantum of royalties paid to Ghanaians even though the international price of gold and other metals have increased tremendously in the past three years.
He said government is revising the Mining Regulations to among other things eventually lead to increases in the payment of royalties as well as the issue of foreign exchange retention by mining companies adding “in the light of the global financial crises, we wish to entreat the mining companies to support the economy of Ghana by increasing the percentage of foreign exchange earnings retained in the country”.
Hon Duffuor said this in a speech read on his behalf to open the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) Pre-validation workshop to access Ghana’s progress with the EITI process, prepare the country for the validation, and access Ghana’s chances in successfully going through the EITI process.
The workshop sponsored by GTZ/GOG brought together members of the Ghana EITI Steering Committee, the media and facilitators from the International EITI Secretariat in Norway and Washington to deliberate on modalities to prepare Ghana for a final validation in 2010.
Ghana joined the EITI in 2003 and has made remarkable progress but risks being delisted from the EITI if she fails to go through Validation by March 10, 2010. The EITI validation is a process by which an external auditing company evaluates the work done by Ghana EITI to see if the country is EITI compliant and is using EITI principles.
Hon Duffuor lauded the achievement of GHEITI particularly in the publication of revenues from the mining companies which he said has resulted in increased transparency in the country’s minerals revenue inflows.
He acknowledged that there were still challenges especially now that Ghana will soon be an oil producing country saying “with the discovery of substantial amount of crude oil off the shores of Ghana, it has become a challenge for us to ensure that Ghana does not repeat the mistakes of many oil rich developing countries”.
Mining sector is an important foreign exchange earner for the country accounting for 33% of total exports, 11% of government revenue 5% of GDP and 7% of corporate tax.
Hon. Collins Dauda, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in a speech read on his behalf by Mr. Ellis Paul Atiglah a Director at the Ministry said it was unfortunate that after a hundred years of mining in Ghana, the country was still struggling with provision of decent infrastructure for mining communities.
He said though the EITI process makes the payment and receipts of revenues accruing from extractive industries transparent it is important to go further to ensure that resources are converted into real results that matter in the lives of the poor.
“It is time for the citizens of mining communities to start taking the published findings from the EITI reports seriously and to use them as the basis to demand accountable governance from the managers of these resources” he added.
He lauded the efforts of the Minerals Commission in developing guidelines for the utilization of mineral royalties for District and Municipal/Metropolitan Assemblies.
In a welcoming address also read on his behalf, the Chairman of the GHEITI National Steering Committee, Nana Juaben-Boaten Siriboe said GHEITI has achieved a lot which has resulted in government taking some policy actions to improve transparency in mineral revenues.
He said these include the publication on government releases of royalties to beneficiary District Assemblies by the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands; the developing of guidelines for the utilization of royalties by district assemblies (on-going) and the establishment of a Revenue Taskforce.
The Revenue Taskforce is an intersectoral collaboration by the Revenue Agencies to ensure standardization and improve accuracy in assessment of taxes and other fiscal obligations by the mining companies.
Since 2003 when Ghana joined the EITI process, it has established a multi-stakeholder Committee, established an EITI Secretariat, developed a comprehensive and costed work plan, engaged an EITI Aggregator (Auditor), who has produced three reports so far and set up a website for information dissemination.
The EITI is a global initiative to improve transparency and accountability that is being implemented in more than 20 resource-rich countries around the world. The initiative is built on two main mechanisms. The first is the regular publication of independently reconciled credible data on payments made to governments.
The second is the development of a multi-stakeholder oversight mechanism to ensure sound and timely implementation of the EITI process in each country and to stimulate greater public debate about how the time limited resource revenues are spent. END
For more information go to www.gheiti.gov.gh
