Skip to main content

PIAC told to go to court to enforce recommendations


By: Fred Yaw Sarpong
sarpong007@gmail.com

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), the mandated body to monitor the use of Ghana’s oil revenues has been asked to go to court to seek strict compliance of the laws covering accountability of oil funds in the country.

According to Dr. Steve Manteaw, the Campaign Coordinator for ISODEC and a member of the PIAC , it’s time for PIAC as a body to consider going to court to compel institutions responsible for managing Ghana’s oil revenue to answers some questions concerning the expenditure of oil funds.

He pointed out that there are several recommendations made by the PIAC in its past reports on management of petroleum revenues, and a lot of these recommendations has received no positive response from the institutions concerned.

He disclosed this to the Daily Express at a three-day workshop on Interrogating the 2016 Semi Annual PIAC Report at Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

The workshop was organized by the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalist (IFEJ) in collaboration with PIAC Secretariat. The event was sponsored by GIZ, German Corporation. The programme brought together over 30 participants from some selected media houses, PIAC and GIZ.

“If we do not compel these institutions to do what is right and answer some questions with regard to petroleum funds, they will never give accountability to the people of this country,” said Dr. Manteaw.

Dr. Manteaw raised concern about Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) not complying with PIAC’s recommendations.

In PIAC’s report for the first half of 2016, it was recommended that “the GNPC should desist from financing infrastructure projects with funds allocated to it from petroleum revenues. PIAC proposes that any outstanding payments to be made in respect of the Western Corridor Road project must be paid from the allocations to the roads and other infrastructure priority areas.”

He indicated that the GNPC has not taken into consideration this recommendation from the PIAC report. “The GNPC has been financing other projects with funds allocated to it from the petroleum funds. This is wrong and that’s why PIAC has to go to court to make sure some of these recommendations are enforce,” Dr. Manteaw said.

In his response, Mr. Kwame Jantuah, the Vice Chairman of PIAC said the committee does not have powers to prosecute. “PIAC also do not have the resources to go to court to enforce these recommendations. But what we intend doing is to alert all PIAC members to consider educating or informing their respective institutions about their roles to implements these recommendations,’ he stated.

Dr. John Gatsi, an Economist and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Coast Business School encouraged Ghanaians to go to court in order to enforce some of these recommendations.

“Ghanaians should know that the PIAC report serves their interest and for that matter they can take the report and go to court,” he added.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vodafone sells 45% shares in Verizon for US$130 billion

Vodafone has sold its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to US telecoms group Verizon Communications in one of the biggest deals in corporate history. The US$130 billion (£84bn) deal was announced by Vodafone after the close of trading on the London Stock Exchange. The company will return £54 billion to its shareholders, of which £22 billionn will go to shareholders in the UK. Vodafone will also invest money in its business, with funds earmarked for high speed mobile phone networks. It said that by 2017 its main five European markets would have almost complete 4G coverage. Possibly it would be wrong to carp and wring hands that Vodafone won't be paying a penny of tax to the British taxman” Vodafone group chairman Gerard Kleisterlee said: "The transaction will position Vodafone strongly to pursue our leadership strategy in mobile and unified communication services for consumers and enterprises, both in our developed markets and across our emerging markets businesses." The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shortage of weighing cards hit major hospitals in Accra

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express There is scarcity of Child Health Records Book (weighing cards), in some major public hospitals in the capital, information reaching the Daily Express indicates. Checks by this paper revealed that while some of the hospitals have being encountering the shortage for about a year now, others started experiencing it six months ago. In place of the Child Health Record Book (weighing card), the nursing mothers are given a single card on which information of children are recorded on it. Those hospitals identified are the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Korle Bu Polyclinic, Kaneshie Polyclinic, Adabraka Polyclinic and the Ridge Hospital. At the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the nursing mothers are given yellow cards in place of the weighing cards. The Public Relations Secretariat at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital said such information has not come to their notice and for that matter they cannot comment on it. “We do not have some ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ABL launches chibuku super in Bolgatanga

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong sarpong007@gmail.com Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) has officially launched the Chibuku Super drink at Bolgatanga in the Upper East region with the aim of reaching a lot of customers. Mr. Thomas Nii Ponku, Supervisor in charge of Chibuku Super at ABL told Daily Express that the management decided to launch the Chibuku Super drink in the Upper East region because they’ve realized it is similar to a traditional drink in the region. “Chibuku is like a well developed pito, a traditional drink made from fermented millet or sorghum in the Northern part of Ghana. So the idea is to provide them with similar drink,” he added. Mr. Nii Ponku disclosed this when members of the Institute of Finance and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) toured the facility of ABL to acquaint themselves with the expansion project at the factory. He mentioned that after a feasibility study, they realized there is a potential market for the product in the northern part of Ghana ...
Post a Comment
Read more