He believes this will help regulate entities such as Exxon Mobil, which has strong imprints in the energy sector.

[contextly_sidebar id=”OPCqjxYurl99XQM45Sy5R0PnG9ZbG4JT”]The Petroleum Production and Exploration Bill, among others, stipulates that Ghanaians should be prioritized in terms of employment in the petroleum industry.

However, some oil exploration companies blatantly flout this provision.

Last week the government signed a deal with the oil giant, Exxon Mobil, which is awaiting ratification by Parliament. But even before that, Dr. Manteaw believes a lot needs to be done to keep oil companies in check.

“It requires very mature and experienced regulatory institutions which we don’t have. This puts extra responsibility on citizens. We all have a role to play to ensure that the rules governing the game are observed by Exxon Mobil.”

“As I speak to you, they [GNPC] are still in the process of building their capacity so I am saying that, for a regulatory institution which is still an infant, you need to be wary when you are bringing in the big companies because they can actually override our institutions,” he said to Citi News.

Parliament assures scrutiny

The Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament has indicated that it will ensure Ghana gets the best out of the deal signed with ExxonMobil.

The agreement is expected to be presented to Parliament for ratification when the House resumes.

The agreement will allow the oil giant to acquire exploration and production rights for the Deepwater Cape Three Points block that is Tano Basin.

Ghanaian ownership is estimated at 30 percent, comprising 10 percent royalties to the government while the GNPC owns 15 percent stake as Carried and Participation Interest.

Earlier concerns from Manteaw

Dr. Steve Manteaw had accused the government circumventing the law by signing the oil exploration deal with Exxon Mobil.

He also raised concerns over government’s failure to resort to an open bidding process to select Exxon Mobil despite the Energy Minister, Boakye Agarko, explaining that negotiations began before the law was passed.

Group being selective

But the Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, said the Civil Society group was being selective in its contentions.

According to him, the group was only focusing on section 10 (3) of the 2016 Petroleum Act 919, which requires the government to enter into exploration agreements through a competitive public tender as the default process.

Dr. Amin Adam made reference to Section 10 (9) of the same law, which he said permitted direct negotiations without public tender.

Section 10 (9) says: “Despite the subsection (3) the Minister may, in consultation with the Commission, determine that a petroleum agreement may be entered into by direct negotiations without public tender, where direct negotiations  represent the most efficient manner to achieve optimal exploration, development and production of petroleum resources in a defined area.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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However, he said, if such resources are not efficiently managed it could possibly erode democratic accountability as well as serve as a basis for conflict and social strife.

Dr Manteaw said this at a dissemination workshop organized by World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) at Daboase in the Western Region.

He said countries like Angola, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo were a few examples where poor resource management has resulted in social strife.

Dr Manteaw said many natural resource rich developing countries score poorly on good governance and are found in the bottom third of the World Bank’s composite governance indicator rankings and also the bottom third of Transparency International’s annual ranking of countries by perceptions of corruption.

He said GHEITI originated from the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) with the main aim of resolving problems in the extractive sector, adding that the initiative was grounded in a shared belief that the prudent exploitation of natural resource wealth would provide the basis for sustainable economic growth and contribute to sustainable development.

Madam Rachel Fosuwa Sarpong, the District Coordinating Director for Wassa East, said the dissemination workshop was timely to inform key stakeholders on the effects and benefits of natural resources.

She said the workshop would also promote popular participation which is a very important tool in ensuring transparency and accountability in the management of revenue from mining resources.

Madam Sarpong said in the past revenue accrued from extractive resources were used for recurrent instead of capital expenditure which resulted in poor development outcomes.

She said GHEITI is around to promote the prudent exploitation of natural resource wealth, ensure that citizens benefited from the natural resource extraction and also provide citizens the opportunity for public debate on how revenue from extractive resource should be used.

Mr Kwaku Boamponsem, an official of Boas and Associates, said GHEITI’s objectives could only be met through enhanced transparency of funds in relation to payments, receipts disbursements and utilization.

He said payments and receipts considered under the 2014 reports included Mineral Right Licenses, Ground rent, property rates and Mineral royalties as well as corporate taxes, dividends and environmental permitting fees.

Mr Boamponsem said the 2014 GHEITI reconciliation report indicates an amount of GH¢ 972,092,848.00 as government receipts whiles company payments was at GH¢972, 787,529.00.

He said corporate tax was the largest of the mining revenue streams received by the government in 2014 whiles Grounds Rent receipts were significant for the first time in the reconciliation process.

Madam Abena Acheampong, the country Director for World University Service of Canada (WUSC), said WUSC is a leading Canadian international development organization dedicated to improving education, employment and empowerment opportunities for youth, women, refugees, and other marginalized people around the world.

She said WUSC was currently working in partnership with West African Governance and Economic Sustainability (WAGES) to identify business opportunities for communities and strengthen local and national businesses.

Madam Acheampong WUSC and WAGES were jointly implementing initiatives in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Ghana where they are currently working in Bogoso and Wassa East.

The Country Director said one of the objectives of WUSC and WAGES was to give people in mining areas alternative livelihood so that life could be meaningful to the people after mining activities have concluded in the area.

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Source: GNA

The post Our natural resources should propel development – Dr Manteaw appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He believes the country should completely reject the MCC Compact II, which will see the concession of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), to the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).

[contextly_sidebar id=”Djb9HckeO3y3wZxy74jCV6IIA5ZNYsGx”]In Dr. Manteaw’s view, “the credibility of the whole concession arrangement has been shattered completely”  insisting that “we should be rejecting it outright.”

He further expressed discomfort at “attempts to try to repair that damage by making recommendations as to why or how it can be improved.”

Under the power compact, six projects will be implemented to address the root causes of the unavailability and unreliability of power in Ghana, in a bid to make the ECG more efficient.

But Dr. Manteaw punched holes in such a mandate noting that, one of ECG’s main problem was that it has not been able to invest in its operations largely because of government’s huge indebtedness to it.

The ECG is also deemed to be inefficient because of factors like obsolete equipment, he added, and thus drew a link between these two points noting that “if government does not pay what it owes ECG, how on earth can ECG invest in its operations?”

In Dr. Manteaw’s view, Ghana is perfectly capable of managing its own affairs, and noted that, similar concessionary endeavors in the past, had not turned out well.

“This is no different from the Aqua Vitens Rand contract which was a management contract, but bore the hallmarks of a concession, and we warned that it would not succeed and it did not. Luckily for us, it was limited to only five years so we had the opportunity to cut our losses and get out of that bad deal… Today, Ghana Water is in the hands of Ghanaians and at the ‘Kufuor gallons’ which became the order of the day have vanished.”

The Compact II agreement

Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the US government signed the second Compact in October 2016.

The agreement brought to total $1.4 billion received by the government to be injected into the country’s energy sector geared towards making the ECG more efficient.

The project under the compact includes the ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, NEDCo Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project, and Access Project.

The rest are Power Generation Sector Improvement Project and Energy Efficiency, and Demand Side Management Project.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Ghana should be fighting against ECG concession – Steve Manteaw appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.