The Minority in Parliament has raised serious concern about the refusal of the government to account for over $100 million accruing from Ghana’s Petroleum lifting in the first quarter of 2022.
According to the Minority, the decision by the current NPP Government to transfer revenues accruing from about 944,164bbls of crude lifting in the Jubilee and TEN fields to a company established in a safe haven (outside Ghana) without Parliamentary approval, amounts to a gross violation of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815) and Public Financial Management Act (Act 921).
The side said it became aware that following the acquisition of a 7% interest in the Occidental (Oxy) transaction in respect of the Jubilee and TEN Fields by the Government ostensibly for GNPC in 2021, the Minister of Finance clandestinely ceded the shares to an offshore company known as JOHL (a company set-up in the Cayman Islands) in a very surreptitious and opaque manner.
“The Minority is very much alarmed that contrary to requirements of the PRMA, revenues accruing from the nation’s oil fields are not being paid into the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF), which has been confirmed in the 2022 semi-annual report on petroleum receipts by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC),” a statement signed by Mr. John Jinapor, Ranking Member on Mines and Energy Committee said.
He expressed concern that the report further reveals that Capital Gains Tax was not assessed and collected by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in the sale of the 7% interest by Anadarko in the Jubilee and TEN Fields in 2021.
“This NPP Government is proving by the day that the nation’s oil resources cannot be entrusted in their care because not long ago the PIAC under the chairmanship of Dr. Steve Manteaw accused them over their inability to account for about GHȼ2 billion of Ghana’s oil cash for the 2017, 2018 and 2019 fiscal years.”
“This is surely another “Agyapa” deal in the making and we as a Minority will not sit aloof for this Government to raid the national purse, especially at a time when the nation is struggling to raise much-needed revenues for critical expenditure.”
The Minority demanded the government and the Ministry of Finance to repatriate all the illegal transfer payments immediately back into the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF).
It warned it will use the necessary parliamentary processes to drag the Minister of Finance to Parliament for possible censure if the government fails to comply with its demand.