The African Parliamentarians Network against Corruption (APNAC) has raised concerns about the Petroleum Revenue Management Act.
According to the group, the law in its current form has the tendency of fuelling the future siphoning of oil revenue from the country.
The Act provides a legal framework for the collection, allocation and management of petroleum revenue in a responsible, transparent, accountable and sustainable manner for the benefit of all Ghanaians in accordance with Article 36 of the 1992 Constitution.
However several oil and gas experts believe the law which is less than three years when left will do greater harm than good to the country?s scarce resources.
Some of the inconsistencies identified in the law include the calculation of the Petroleum Benchmark Revenue and allocations to the Ghana Petroleum Funds (the Ghana Stabilisation Fund and the Ghana Heritage Fund) (GHF) and Annual Budget Funding Amount; membership of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and the qualifying instruments which Ghana Petroleum Funds (GPF) should be invested in.
Addressing the press in Accra today, the Chairman of the anti corruption body, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said the ambiguous nature of the current act will lead to the wanton dissipation of state funds in future.
?In the law, the GNPC takes some money from equity finance and who determines what should be taken? It is they themselves……..You cannot say that I have determined that this is my equity finance, I have taken the money from the revenue and then you do as you please,? he said.
The Minority Leader explained further that ?We know how this law came in function…….They are now realizing that there are avenues that if we don?t block monies could be siphoned for other enterprises unknown to this country and indeed a few things are happening.?
Source:
Ekow Annan/Live FM
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