Accra, Jan. 31, - Dr. Eric
Osei-Assibey, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, says it is
unnecessary for Ghana to keep its Heritage Funds in an investment product with
2.25 percent interest rate while borrowing at over 10 percent interest rate.
Dr Osei-Assibey, an Economist and
Adjunct Fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said the nation had
invested about US$625 million of the country’s petroleum funds in the USA at an
interest rate of 2.25 percent, which had yielded a paltry US$25 million dollars
within a period of five years.
He said the country’s petroleum
funds had not yielded the needed dividends in view of the low profit return,
therefore it was time government took a decision on the petroleum funds that
would inure to the benefit of Ghanaians.
Dr Osei-Assibey, said this when
he chaired the presentation of the outcome of the P-TRAC Index Report in Accra,
on Tuesday
The IEA’s P-TRAC Index project,
which started in 2011, provides quantitative indicators to track progress in
the governance of the oil and gas sector aimed at promoting transparency and
accountability in the sector.
According to the IEA, the
methodology used for conducting the P-TRAC Index followed conventions proposed
by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the World Bank’s
Guide on Resource Revenue Transparency.
The event attracted some members
of Parliament, Ministers of State, the diplomatic community, senior citizens
and the media.
Professor John Asafu-Adjaye, a
Senior Research Fellow at the IEA, who presented the P-TRAC Report, said the
passage of the Right to Information (RTI) Bill into law would improve
disclosure of information on the award of contracts and licences in the oil and
gas sector.
He cited the recent petroleum
agreement signed between Ghana and Exxon Mobil of the United States to
undertake oil and gas exploration in the Deep Tano Basin as a case in point,
which was shrouded in secrecy because details of the contract were not made
public.
The Report also called for the
Marine Pollution and the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency bills to be
presented to Parliament for passage into law.
Prof. Asafu-Adjaye noted that, if
Ghana wanted to be a major player in the petroleum industry, then the bills
must be passed into law so that oil companies would fulfil their
responsibilities and not take the nation for a ride.
He said the passage of the
Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) was not enough to ensure transparency
and accountability in the petroleum sector, hence the need to pass those bills
into law to complement the PRMA.
He added that portions of the
Citizens Budget should include information on the governance of the petroleum
resources so that the ordinary Ghanaian would understand issues pertaining to
the sector.
However, he noted that, the
passage of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill into Law by Parliament
in 2016, had improved the availability of information on petroleum resource
management.
GNA
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