A member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Alex Afenyo-Markin, has challenged the government to provide evidence of projects it claims to have undertaken with the about GHC 83 million revenue made from oil.
“I want to challenge government to take us on a full trip. We want to see [what they have done with the oil revenue],” he said.
[contextly_sidebar id=”9GQ2l35lILB03J8yYs8yLFlzrf9Nk2x1″]The Public Interest and Accountability Committee’s (PIAC) 2013 report has raised questions over government’s management and use of petroleum revenues for the year in review.
Some infrastructural projects which have been listed by the government as being funded by the proceeds from the oil production in the Jubilee fields are reportedly non-existent.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Afenyo-Markin stated that the Finance Ministry was unable to give a detailed account on what the government had used the 2013 oil revenue for.
He expressed shock that despite the introduction of a system by the Ministry to control public sector expenditure, it was unable to account for GHC 82 million of oil revenue.
“…how come GHC 82 million of oil revenue could get out of public coffers and the Ministry is unable to support the utilization of this?” he asked, adding that “there is no room for assumption in this matter. The facts are so clear and there is no way the government can deny.”
According to him, the PIAC report also indicated that over the past three years, “no cedi was allocated for any investment in power generation. There was nothing like that. Even where certain allocations were made, diversions were done and according to PIAC report, we still don’t know how such monies were utilized.”
He further mentioned that an amount of 13.5 million was listed as being used for some infrastructural projects but “they could not provide any documentation to support that.”
“PIAC complained that government listed these projects but they could not find them so where are they? They are not there. They should show us!” he demanded.
The Effutu Member of Parliament (MP) remarked that PIAC’s 2013 report gives credence to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) assessment of Ghana with respect to the abuse of oil revenue.
This, he said is no different from what the views of the Minority in Parliament on the issue.
He said it was disheartening to note that despite the many challenges facing the nation which forced government to seek financial aid from the IMF, there is “wanton abuse of state resources, the misuse of state resources, the abuse of oil revenue that has resulted in the crisis we find ourselves…”
Afenyo-Markin argued that Ghana is “in such a mess…per the report we all have…” and charged the government and other state officials to take citizens “a bit more seriously. Our government must care for us and our government must not use our resources anyhow.”
No authority to speak on the matter
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament, James Kluste Afedzi on Eyewitness News said contrary to Afenyo-Markin’s submissions on the matter, the meeting between PIAC and key government institutions showed a significant improvement in the use of oil revenue.
He pointed out that “Afenyo-Markin was not even at the meeting…he came only on Sunday so he cannot appreciate the entire report and the discussion that we had in Koforidua so he cannot have the authority to speak to this matter.”
He argued that the Effutu MP “came on Sunday when we had fully discussed the issue on Saturday. He was not there but he is now saying that government is not able to account or respond to it.”
Click on link to read PAIC’s 2013 report
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By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @osamidan