The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has announced plans to roll out an operational audit system for all mining companies in the country.
The move, according to the ministry is to ensure that revenue received by government from the country’s mining industry is accurate.
This follows a recent disclosure of undervalued revenue received from gold export to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Speaking to journalists, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu maintained the move will block all revenue leakages in the export of gold and other commodities.
“As governments, we have been short changed for a long time in the history of a country that is involved in mining, what the ministry in collaboration with government seeks to do now is to introduce what we call an operational audit of mining firms and this is going to be across all mining companies that are going to work in this country.”
He added that it is important for the mining companies to be cooperative in the rolling out of the audit in order to achieve the best results, “We will introduce an operational audit that will determine that the royalties, the tax regimes and all the other benefits in terms of what comes to government are actual. We feel strongly that government’s take in terms of our royalties and our benefits are being paid and not properly reported and so most of these companies, of course as you know, are listed and so if they are listed, we expect them to be very open to us when we commence this operational audit.”
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By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana