The Public Accounts Committee has directed the Bank of Ghana to immediately furnish it with details of proceeds from the country’s export of bauxite in 2015.
The directive follows an allegation by the Effutu MP , Alexander Afenyo Markin at today’s [Tuesday] Public Accounts Committee sitting, that the proceeds were not captured, insisting that information available to him suggests Ghana exported over 40,000 tonnes of bauxite in 2015.
Speaking during proceedings in Parliament on Tuesday, Afenyo Markin said: “Now bauxite exported was not captured at all, but in the report we have only Maganese and I am saying that I know tonnes of bauxite that were exported within the period. As a matter of fact, Minerals Commission has given report to Parliament so I want to know why that is conspicuously absent.”
But the Second Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Johnson Asiamah in response to claims by the MP, said the problem was not as a result of a lack of internal controls.
He attributed the challenge to Bank of Ghana’s inability to offer the necessary information to auditors on the said transaction, which led to unnecessary delays.
“I told them it is not about a lax in internal controls, it was a question of staff not giving out information quickly when the auditors were working and there were delays..”
He added that “it was not a question of it [transaction] not being recorded, it was a question of the fact that the bauxite sector had a 100 percent retention limit. “
Mr. Asiamah however indicated that, the Bank of Ghana intends putting together a report to explain factors that led to the development.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana