This is the belief of the National Campaign Coordinator of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Dr Steve Manteaw.

[contextly_sidebar id=”JlvvzOhCdIGhx38YIWK9w3BF4zFgykZn”]According to him, Ghana’s delay in submitting the report could mainly be attributed to the failure of the World Bank to provide funding for the reporting.

Ghana, from 2015, has failed to submit to the international body its annual report on commitments, and the fight against corruption in the country’s gold, oil and gas sectors, putting it at risk of suspension from the EITI if it does not produce the report by the end of 2017.

Information available to Citi News indicates that the government, through the Ministry of Finance has already written to the organization pleading for a three-month extension to enable it put the reports together.

Dr. Manteaw in an interview on Eyewitness News said despite the delay, Ghana has already initiated steps to get funding for the reports but will need extra time to complete it.

“Like many other implementing countries, the reporting is financed by the World Bank and we have assurances from the World Bank that monies were going to be released for the reporting however the World Bank failed to fulfill its side of the bargain. And very late in the year we found that it wasn’t possible for the World Bank to do its disbursement so quickly we had move to look for money outside the budget to finance the reporting. Government get managed to get some money for the mining sector and the Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (GOGIG) came to government’s aid with money for the oil and gas reporting. So we [have] actually begun the process towards implementing our report for 2015/2016,” he said.

He said Ghana will be perceived as an unsafe destination for investment in the extractive industry if it is suspended from the EITI.

He argued that, “once a country is suspended, the impression is created that that country is not committed to fighting corruption and abuse in the extractive sector and that in itself becomes a deterrent for potential investors especially in the extractive sector.”

Dr. Manteaw said he was however hopeful that the EITI will grant Ghana’s request for an extension.

He also urged the government to find sustainable ways of ensuring funding for the production of the annual report to avert the difficulty in future.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to the Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, keeping oil blocks idle for long denies the country the needed funds for development.

[contextly_sidebar id=”YpVYDUrES3lQFgGL9TbjtjOyBizLLwVe”]He issued the warning at local content workshop in Takoradi, and stressed that the Akufo-Addo government will not hesitate to terminate contracts if minimum work obligations are not met.

“…Because of the uncertainty that our industry was faced with as a result of the ITLOS [litigation], the boundary dispute between Ghana and Ivory Coast, most companies sat back waiting for the ruling. As a result of the wait-and-see attitude, a number of them were not complying with the terms of the agreement as far as their minimal obligations were concerned.”

Given the favorable ruling that has eliminated the uncertainty, the government now expects the companies to go back to work, the Minister said.

“The government of Ghana has measures that we can take within the context of the petroleum agreement, including termination of the petroleum agreements. So we are cautioning the oil companies to go back to work.”

Dr. Amin Adams further cautioned that the inaction of the companies could affect cash inflows to the government needed to finance development projects.

“We are desirous of increasing activity upstream. When these companies are not performing we cannot increase activity. We are producing from our proven reserves and when you are depleting reserves and you don’t replace, a time will come when you have no oil and gas industry.”

“We don’t want to get to that stage, and if we have to avoid that problem, then we should be able to increase exploration activity so we can make more discoveries so we can increase production and revenue to the government,” he said.

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonine.com/Ghana

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According to them, government has done little to increase local participation in the sector, despite the implementation of the Local Content Law, which seeks to promote the maximization of value addition and job creation through the use of local expertise, goods and services in the petroleum industry value chain.#

Speaking to Citi Business News on the sidelines of the Third Africa Oil and Gas Talent Summit, National Coordinator for the summit, Yeboah Sarha, said government must create more schemes to train locals to take advantage of opportunities in the downstream and upstream sectors of the industry.

“Government should invest more in training the youth and locals in the oil and gas industry, this will help deal with unemployment and also give us better value for our money in the country’s oil sector.”

He added that, government should also build the capacity of Ghanaians by sending them for attachment programs outside the country.

“We can work with the industry players for them to work with Ghanaians outside some of their companies. For instance if people are sent to places like Houston or other places, these are areas where Ghanaians can go and work and government will foot the bill so that the people can gain experience and come back and work within the industry”, he suggested.

About the summit

The 3rd Africa Oil and Gas Talent Summit (AOGS), is under the theme, ‘Digital Workplace Transformation for Africa’s Energy Future.’

The summit also brought together participants from across the continent.

A key feature of this year’s summit were the roundtable sessions and expert presentations with delegates and exhibitors, made up of Chief Executive Officers of Exploration and Production and Service companies, Ministers of state and directors of oil and gas, energy and power companies, and Local Content Managers.

The AOGS is an annual event that brings together African operators, service providers and regulators to power-up their digital workplace strategies – particularly in a time when the industry is seeking innovative strategic responses to a lower-forever oil price future.
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By: Anita Arthur/Citibudsinessnews.com/Ghana

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The Platform in a statement signed by its Chairman, Steve Manteaw, expressed regret that most state officials were putting the credibility of their work in question by getting involved in shady engagements.

[contextly_sidebar id=”FRL7keicebrmxWCkMnbVfLQs7baej6eB”]It said, the worrying trend was an affront to the fight against corruption, as state officers are indirectly influenced not to execute their mandate effectively by being sponsored by bodies they investigate to carry out the task.

It added that “It also constitutes a big blow to the integrity of the personnel and institutions involved, as well as the credibility of their work.”

The Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid, reportedly admitted that the Addison Committee’s trip to Dubai to investigate the deal, including hotel accommodation and air tickets were paid for by AMERI.

This has raised many questions about the objectivity of the report it produced, which accused the erstwhile government of not doing due diligence in signing the contract, and therefore costing Ghana some extra $150 million.

The NDC minority in parliament, has since served notice it will petition CHRAJ to look into the matter over a possibility of the Commttee being in a conflict of interest position.

According to CSPOG, any such investigation by CHRAJ must lead to the prescription and adoption of guidelines by which public office holders, institutions, and investigative committees would be held to.

Read CSPOG’s full statement below:

Hon. Mustapha Hamid’s admission that AMERI funded the Addison Committee’s trip to Dubai as part of investigations into the AMERI deal has raised serious conflict of interest issues. Media reports alleged that AMERI paid for the hotel and air tickets of the committee members to Dubai to aid the Addison committee’s investigation.

This situation has led to people, especially the NDC to question the credibility of the report issued by the committee. According to Dr.  Kwabena Donkor, the Former Minister Of Power under whom the agreement was signed, AMERI’s sponsorship of the Committee compromises the integrity of Philip Addison and his committee to conduct any investigation whatsoever into the deal.

While the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas (CSPOG) welcomes the public debate that has ensued following the revelation, it wishes to point out that, it has, unfortunately, become the norm, rather than the exception in Ghana for state official and entities to place themselves in positions of conflicting interests.

In 2015 before the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) was signed between state-owned distributor, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and Karpowership Ghana Company Limited, members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines And Energy, who were responsible for ensuring due diligence before the contract was signed by the government, and who was saddled with responsibility for ratifying the transaction were sponsored on a trip to Turkey by the very company (Karpowership) that the agreement was to be signed with.

Karpowership paid their airfares, hotel expenses and per diems.

There have also been several cases of government officials who are supposed to have oversight responsibilities over companies and institutions being sponsored by these same companies on trips abroad, serving on boards of these companies or involved with the company for personal gains.

The trend is indeed worrying, as it constitutes a huge impediment to the fight against corruption.

It also constitutes a big blow to the integrity of the personnel and institutions involved, as well as the credibility of their work.

CSPOG recalls that the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) embarked on a mission to develop conflict of interest guidelines for public office holders during the reign of President Kufuor, but wonders what became of the exercise.

Now that CHRAJ is being called upon by the NDC to investigate the Philip Addison Committee, CSPOG takes the opportunity to urge that, any such investigation must lead to the prescription and adoption of guidelines by which public office holders, institutions, and investigative committees would be held to.

As part of remedial measures, the state must be required at all times, to make funding available to sponsor activities of committees set up to investigate cases of corruption, as in the case of AMERI, to prevent creating avenues for possible bribery which leads to loss of credibility of the committees’ reports.

If the government cannot ensure adequate funding is available to sponsor investigations, then they shouldn’t set committees up in the first place.

Signed

Steve Manteaw

(Chairman, CSPOG)

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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PIAC is a citizens-led statutory body established under section 51 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (Act 815) to provide additional non-parliamentary and independent oversight over the collection and utilization of Ghana’s petroleum revenues.

[contextly_sidebar id=”l75Xa0eyTRIE9u2qQejV7s4hXBGhZTum”]Dr Manteaw, a policy analyst told journalists attending a 14-day training course on oil, gas and mining that government interference has obstructed the activities of the Committee.

He said between 2011 and 2015, revenue generated from the oil sector stood at 3.2 billion dollars but a huge chunk – almost 70 percent of the revenue, was spent in the education sector.

Dr Manteaw, who is the campaign coordinator of the Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC), a non-governmental organization, said PIAC has undertaken a national exercise and monitored the utilization of the oil revenue in some of the regions.

“The Committee has officially written to the Ministry of Petroleum to respond to some of the findings but about three months now the sector minister has not responded,” he said.

Dr Manteaw, who is also the Chairman of the Civil Society Platform, said substantial governance gaps remained in the country’s oil and gas industry saying the lack of integration of the sector into the rest of the economy is a teething challenge.

Mr Ishmael Edjekumhene, the Executive Director of the Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment, a non-governmental organization and member of PIAC, said the responsibility to ensure the judicious utilization of the oil revenue was not a sole duty of PIAC alone.

He appealed to the media, civil society organisations and the public to develop the interest and monitor revenue inflows in the oil and gas sector.

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Source: GNA

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Production in the Jubilee Field started with 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day and has currently reached a production level of 110.000 barrels per day. It is expected to peak at 120,000 barrels per day in the years ahead.

A number of institutions sprung up at the time offering a number of oil related programmes in in a bid to position Ghanaians strategically to take up jobs in the sector. Several other companies and consultancy firms also cropped up providing varied services in the field.

Though the resource is in Ghana, the countries stake in the sector is less than 20 percent. The country is still prospecting for new oil fields with recent discoveries pointing to oil resource in parts of Keta in the Volta Region.

Experts believe the Voltaian Basin hold oil and gas reserves which government through the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) is seeking to fully explore. Government has also expanded the country’s oil resource with arrival of the Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) John Evans Atta Mills for the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme (TEN) Fields which is expected to produce about 23, 000 barrels of crude a day.

In a bid to ensure that Ghanaians are not sidelined however, Parliament passed the local content and local participation regulation (L.I. 2204) in 2013 to put indigenous Ghanaians at the forefront of all petroleum activities.

The L.I. sought to achieve the following:

(a) Promote the maximization of value-addition and job creation through the use of local expertise, goods and services, businesses and financing in the petroleum industry value chain and their retention in the country;

(b) Develop local capacities in the petroleum industry value chain through education, skills transfer and expertise development, transfer of technology and know-how and active research and development programmes;

(c) Achieve the minimum local employment level and in-country spend for the provision of the goods and services in the petroleum industry value chain as specified in the First Schedule;

(d) Increase the capability and international competitiveness of domestic businesses; (e) create petroleum and related supportive industries that will sustain economic development;

(f) Achieve and maintain a degree of control for Ghanaians over development initiatives for local stakeholders;

(g) Provide for a robust and transparent monitoring and reporting system to ensure delivery of local content policy objectives;

(h) Provide for the submission of the local content plan and related sub-plans by contractors, subcontractors, licensees and any other allied entity involved in the petroleum industry including

(i) The provision of goods and services;

(ii) The transfer to the Corporation or the Commission and Ghanaians of advanced technology and skills related to petroleum activities;

(iii) A recruitment and training programme; and

(iv) Supervision, coordination, implementation and monitoring of local content.

Despite the passage of the local content regulation analysts believe that the quantum of local participation, as well as the extent to which local people can participate in the oil and gas sector is limited with regards to technology, finance and human resources. The onus however lies on the government to invest massively in building the capacity of its citizens to enable them occupy vantage positions in order to ensure that the oil resource benefits Ghanaians and not only the foreign investors.

Negotiation of better oil deals
Going forward, government must negotiate new oil deals in a better way and must have a lot of components for Ghanaians. Unlike the Jubilee Fields, government is said to have negotiated for more Ghanaian components in the TEN project but much more is required to enable Ghanaians have more stake in the sector. Government must negotiate in a way that allow Ghanaians to increase their stake in the sector as this will go a long way in improving the economy.

Better governance and full implementation of local content law

There is also the need for government to ensure that the local content law is implemented to the latter. For instance the regulation states that for any contract be awarded to any company, if foreign, “there shall be at least a five percent equity participation of an indigenous Ghanaian company other than the Corporation to be qualified to enter into a petroleum agreement or a petroleum license.”

Per the regulation any petroleum agreement that forfeits the above will not be granted but I believe it will be in order for the indigenous participation to be further increased to 20 percent or more. This will enable Ghanaians to be at the forefront of the sector, they must be involved in every aspect in the sector –from fixing of pipelines to managerial positions. The regulation further states that “Where an indigenous Ghanaian company has the capacity to execute a job, that indigenous Ghanaian company shall not be disqualified exclusively on the basis that it is not the lowest financial bidder. “

“Where the total value of the bid of a qualified indigenous Ghanaian company does not exceed the lowest bid by more than ten percent, the contract shall be awarded to that indigenous Ghanaian company. Where during an evaluation of bids, the bids are adjudged to be equal; the bid containing the highest level of local content shall be selected.” Though captured by law, if the above regulation is not adhered to, Ghanaians will surely be ripped off in the sector. Government must immediately set up a taskforce to enforce the regulation at every point.

Training
Government must also create schemes to train locals to take advantage of opportunities in the downstream sector and if possible the upstream sector. For instance government can train more fuel tanker operators [or purchase fuel tankers for them on credit to help in the transportation of oil and gas or train more people to work in local refineries and in the extraction process. Others can be trained to market petroleum products either wholesale or retail. This will generate more jobs to boost economic growth and also ensure a fair representation of Ghanaians in the sector.

Train students for jobs in oil & gas sector

Government must be able to capture data on citizens studying oil and gas related programmes in school and ensure that they are connected to companies in the sector after school. Others should also be encouraged to study such courses at the tertiary level. This will reduce the unemployment rate in the country which analysts say has reached frightening levels. Scholarship packages should be given to students to study oil and gas related courses and absorbed by the companies after their course of study. More IT experts must be encouraged to take up jobs in the sector as well.

Transparency on how oil cash is expended
There should also be transparency on how revenue generated from the sector is expended. For this to be successful, there is however the need for the passage of the Right to Information Bill. This would make access to information easy to bring to book corrupt companies who could either face sanctions or have their licenses revoked.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

Writers email: [email protected]

The post How to boost local participation in Ghana’s oil and gas sector [Article] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Local Content legislative Instrument 2204, was passed to among other things to ensure active participation of indigenous Ghanaians along the entire petroleum value chain.

Speaking at the commissioning of a Mechanical and Welding Workshop at the Kikam Technical Institute at Kikam in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region,  Mr. Armah Buah, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Ellembelle Constituency, noted that “…in terms of direct jobs, approximately 7,000 people have been employed in the upstream [petroleum] sector, comprising of 5,590 Ghanaians and 1,350 expatriates. out of the 474 companies registered with the Petroleum Commission, 321 are indigenous companies and 46 are joint venture companies.”

A substantial amount of the US$4 billion spent on the Tweneboa Enyera Ntomme (TEN) Project from 2010 to 2016 according to Mr. Buah, was spent in the country.

Contracts issued to indigenous Ghanaian service providers according to him, were also in excess of US$221million, about 73 percent increment compared to the US$ 128million for 2015.

Mr. Buah, who was optimistic of more gains under the local content LI in the years ahead, expressed the commitment of the John Mahama-led administration towards making local content and local capacity building the cornerstone of the Ghanaian oil and gas industry.

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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She indicated that, it would do everything to make the extractive industry more beneficial to the people.

She said this in a speech read for her at a two-day dissemination workshop of the 2014 Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) reports, for the mining and oil/gas sectors of the economy, at Obuasi.

The workshop brought together stakeholders including Civil Society Organizations, Municipal and District Chief Executives, District Coordinating Directors, finance officers and chiefs to discuss the findings and recommendations.

Mrs. Quartey underlined the critical importance of the natural resource sector to the nation’s development agenda, saying, “it has remained the most important and significant sector of the Ghanaian economy”.

She noted that, mining for example contributed 8.0 per cent to the Gross National Product (GDP) and 34.7 per cent to the total merchandise export, in year 2014.

The sector’s contribution to government’s revenue during the period stood at 5.0 per cent, she added.

She said it was against this background that “for us as a country, we believe that the extractive industry transparency initiative (EITI) process is here to serve the interest of the government, private companies and other relevant stakeholders” as it helped to identify the challenges in the sector and how to address them.

Mr. J. B. Okai, Director of Policy and Planning at the Ministry of Petroleum, said the new petroleum law would ensure better regulation of petroleum upstream activities.

The law has clauses meant to bring transparency and accountability in the management of the nation’s petroleum resources, he stated.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. John Alexander Ackon, called for all to act together to prevent economic decline of the other sectors of the economy because of the oil and gas production.

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Source: GNA

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Show details

This week, the show is recorded in Johannesburg.

Gary Al-Smith explores a preview of Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs ahead of the Soweto Derby on Saturday. We hear from the Ghana FA and get the latest insight on the sad story of the 21-year-old ref who died in their lower divisions.

Kenyan journalist Jeff Kinyanjui complains about the continuous poor performances in African club events by their teams, veteran journalists Mark Gleeson, Thomas Kwenaite, Jeff Katala and Sizwe Mabena speak on the seeming love affair between Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah and his former boss Milovan Rajevac ahead of the World Cup.

Also Nigeria’s first German-born international Leon Balogun gives his his first interview for African radio. Plus British journalist Dominic Fifield of the Guardian has inside knowledge of the Samuel Eto’o v Jose Mourinho “age cheating” issue.

—

Presented by Gary Al-Smith and produced by Nathan Quao/Gary Al-Smith for Citi FM & Supersport.com.

Soundtrack details
Song Title: Someway Bi
Artist Name: M.anifest
Produced by: Yung Fly
Singitdamnit Music/Cumbancha Music Publishing (BMI) 2013

More detail: Twitter.com/FCAfrica or Facebook.com/FCAfricaRadio

Follow @FcAfrica

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