The Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) has backed calls for a review of the Petroleum revenue management law.
According to them, there is the urgent need to improve the existing legislation to prevent misuse of the resources and also block loopholes that breed corruption in the country.
The Petroleum management Act was passed in 2011 to ensure that funds accrued from Ghana’s oil revenue is channeled into the Heritage Fund which was set up to provide an endowment to support development for future generations.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ElRzqoeMgs1mayk1xobcsbRrqFGWj1qK”]The Ghana Chapter of the African Parliamentarians network Against Corruption (APNAC) wants two-thirds of MP’s to approve any request to spend monies lodged in the Heritage fund.
A member of the group, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has stated that“It is important for us to revisit the act and close the windows of opportunity which allow for some people to reap where they have not sown and make sure that the revenues that are accruing would be used in the interest of the good people of this country in a very transparent and accountable manner.”
Already, influential persons including the General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has suggested that government should be allowed to use the Heritage Fund to finance its projects instead of borrowing at high interest rates.
The review of the law according to the parliamentary group will make it difficult for government to misuse the money.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News the director of research at ACEP John Peter Amewu wants the same proposal to be applied in the disbursement of the stabilization fund which he believes is being abused.
He believes “for proper functioning of the fund and for subsequent approval processes, it’s proper for us to review the approval processes in terms of the stabilization fund.”
“Otherwise going forward in future if governments come into power and they have a majority in power and that government wants to spend more…what they can do is just to have parliament to approve and so far as they have a majority in parliament to approve and so long as they are more than the minority in parliament that approval process needs to be granted and that will not be in the good interest of the country,” he opined.
Meanwhile a report released by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) indicates that Ghana made about GHc3.291 billion from the petroleum revenue since 2011.
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By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana