The Minority in Parliament has expressed concern over the inability or refusal of the government to account for more than 100 million dollars accruing from Ghana’s Petroleum lifting in the first quarter of 2022.
The Minority said the decision by the government to transfer revenues accruing from crude in the Jubilee and TEN fields to a company established in a safe haven outside the country 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 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)”.
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.
According to the Minority, ”the 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”.
The Minority alleges that, ”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 in Parliament is therefore demanding that the ”Minister of Finance and for that matter Government, must with immediate effect repatriate all such illegal transfer payments back into the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF)”.
It says it would resort to using the necessary parliamentary processes to ”haul the Minister of Finance to Parliament for possible censure”.