Energy and research think-tank, Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has accused government of deliberately victimizing the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) by starving them of funds.
This follows the consistent failure of government to fully pay PIAC’s budgetary allocation which is affecting its smooth operation.
The 13-member Committee inaugurated in 2011, didn’t receive any kind of funding from government in the first 18 months of its operation.
Government has also failed to pay 375,000 cedis arrears owed PIAC as the budgetary allocation to the committee for 2015.
According to PIAC government has only paid 125,000 cedis of the original 500,000 cedis expected as budgetary allocation for the year.
“you send somebody to perform an assignment and you don’t give the person the resources that needs to be used in performing that assignment .Obviously that person is not going to be able to perform that assignment well” , the chairman of the committee Major Daniel Sowa Ablorh-Quarcoo questioned.
Speaking to Citi Business News the Director of Policy and Research at ACEP, John Peter Amewu said government is trying to destroy the watchdog institution.
“This is a deliberate attempt by government to deny the institution of its funding …what government will want to do is to kill this body”, he stated.
The committee which is mandated to monitor government’s compliance with the petroleum revenue management law ,was on November 30th, 2014 kicked out of its office complex because the owner of the building refused to renew their tenancy agreement.
Meanwhile the non-profit policy institute currently accommodating PIAC has lamented that the situation is not convenient to both parties.
“it is a dire situation at this moment because nobody prepared for this…we will be able to house them now but between now and January some concrete decision will have to come from government, otherwise it will be difficult” , Coordinator of Natural Resource Governance Institute(NRGI), Emmanuel Kuyole revealed.
He demanded government fully pays the budgetary allocation to PIAC to ensure their smooth operations.
By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana