The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu has directed all 9 district mining officers of the Minerals Commission to proceed on indefinite leave with immediate effect.
This, according to him, is because they have been negligent and watched illegal mining to persist in their respective catchment areas.
“Some of these officers have been working for the commission for the past 9 or 10 years without knowing what is happening around them. Others we met were drunk whilst on the job and all that,” the minister said.
Mr. Amewu disclosed this to journalists while on a two-day tour of the Western Region to observe compliance of otherwise of his earlier directive for all small-scale mining activities across the country to be halted.
The Minister who was dissatisfied with the level of pollution of the Ankobra River at Dwira Tumantu in the Nzema East Municipality disclosed that “on Monday, we are going to issue out a press release to all the 9 mining officers to proceed on leave with immediate effect. There are processes to”
“There are processes to engage young ones who have completed school and are looking for job to do. They should come and help us to sanitize the system. The supervisory work that they had to do to bring sanity to the field has not been done,” he added.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo & Kojo Agyemang/citifmonline.com/Ghana