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Finance Minister appeals to
mining companies for more foreign
exchange retentions
Dodowa, April 20,
Ghanadot/GNA - Dr Kwabena Duffour, Minister of
Finance and Economic Planning, has appealed to mining
companies to support the economy by increasing the
percentage of foreign exchange earnings retained in the
country in the light of the global financial crises.
He said though the international price of gold and other
metals had increased over the last three years, the quantum
of royalties paid to Ghanaians had not changed.
“We are not happy 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 over the past three years,” he said.
Dr Duffour said this in a speech read for him at a
pre-validation workshop of the Ghana Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (EITI) at Dodowa at the weekend.
The workshop was used as a platform to officially inform
stakeholders of government’s intentions to open up Ghana’s
EITI process for validation and to dialogue with them on the
way forward.
Ghana is among countries that must undergo validation by
March 9, 2010, or face the possibility of being de-listed
from the EITI process.
The EITI is a global initiative to improve transparency and
accountability being implemented in more than 20
resource-rich countries by publishing regularly an
independent reconciled data on payments made to governments
by the extractive industry and revenues received by those
governments.
Dr Duffour said it was the aim of government to ensure that
extractive sector revenues were utilised in the most
efficient and effective manner with accountability and
transparency being the guiding principles.
“It is only in this way that we will be able to escape the
spectre of our resources becoming more of a curse than a
blessing to us,” he said.
He said Ghana had learnt lessons from the natural
resource-related conflicts that had plagued some countries
in Africa, adding, “ we are guided by this to ensure that
wealth from our natural resources are equitably distributed
for the benefit of all, but, more especially, for those
immediately impacted by extractive sector activities.”
Dr Duffour said with the discovery of substantial amount of
crude oil off the shores of Ghana, it had become a challenge
for government to ensure that Ghana did not repeat the
mistakes of many oil-rich developing countries.
He said as a nation heavily dependent on non-renewable
natural resources, it was incumbent on all to ensure the
prudent use of the nation’s natural resources.
The Finance Minister called for the building of capacities
for public financial management at the sub-national level in
order to achieve the required transparency.
“Capacities are also needed to deal with the other emerging
issues in the extractive sector, especially, with the plan
by Ghana EITI to extend EITI into oil, forestry and fishery
sectors,” he said and that donor support must be flexible
enough to meet the country needs as far as EITI was
concerned.
Alhaji Collins Daudu, the Minister of Lands and Natural
Resources, said in a speech read for him that it was time
for citizens of mining communities to start taking the
published finding from the EITI reports seriously and use
them as a basis to demand accountable governance from the
managers of these resources.
He said all over the world, in rich and poor countries
alike, there was a growing recognition that the path out of
poverty rested on good governance.
“Without transparent and accountable governance based on
rule of law and checks and balances, reforms aimed at
improving people’s lives would not work.”
Alhaji Daudu said it was unfortunate that after over a
hundred years of mining in Ghana, “we are still struggling
to provide our mining communities decent infrastructure.”
Alhaji Dauda assured that government would go beyond the
issues of transparency and accountability to address the
social issues in the mining communities.
Nana Juaben-Boaten Siriboe, Chief Director, Ministry of
Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) and chairman of the
Ghana EITI National Steering Committee, said in a speech
read for him that Ghana had been implementing the EITI since
2003 and had made remarkable progress.
He said progress so far made was impressive but yet there
was more to be done and expressed the hope that the country
would be successful come 2010 when Ghana would undergo
validation.
GNA |
