Finance Minister faces possible censure over $100m missing oil money
The Minority in Parliament, has threatened to haul before the House the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to be censured if he fails to account for as well as repatriate some $100m transferred to an offshore company known as JOHL.
According to the Minority in Parliament, the said amount transferred to the company setup in Cayman Islands (a safe haven) forms part of revenue accrued from the country’s petroleum liftings in the first quarter of 2022.
In a statement issued by the Minority Caucus, the Minister’s decision to transfer the said amount without the necessary approval from Parliament amounts to a gross violation of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act.
The Minority is therefore demanding that the Finance Minister as a matter of urgency, repatriate the $100m transferred to the offshore company as well as such other illegal transfer payments.
“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.
“We demand 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).
“Failure to comply with our ultimatum will compel the Minority to use the necessary parliamentary processes to haul the Minister of Finance to parliament for possible censure,” the Minority stated.
Read details of statement below:
US$100 MILLION WORTH OF GHANA’S OIL MONEY MISSING – MINORITY RAISES CONCERN
The Minority in Parliament has noted with serious concern the inability or refusal of the Akuffo-Addo/Bawumia led Government to account for over $100Million accruing from Ghana’s Petroleum lifting in the first quarter of 2022.
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).
We have become aware that following the acquisition of a Seven percent (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 has 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).
As if this is not enough, 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.
We demand 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).
Failure to comply with our ultimatum will compel the Minority to use the necessary parliamentary processes to haul the Minister of Finance to parliament for possible censure.
