The Ghana Chamber of Mines has provided the names of the government’s representatives on the Boards of some mining companies cited for depriving the state of revenue in the form of dividends.
The list however falls short of two of the companies that have been identified as not paying dividends to the state.
The representatives as put out by the Chamber of mines in its statement included; Hon. George Mireku Duker and Dr. Isaac Dasmani on the boards of Ghana Manganese and Abosso Goldfields Limited- Damang respectively.
Also, Okatakyie Henry Amankwaa Afrifa and Kwabena Owusu Dwomo represent the government on the boards of Chirano and Perseus Gold Mines respectively.
There were no names for the government representatives on the boards of Adamus and Ghana Bauxite Company.
Ghana loses $14.15million in mining revenue
A report by anti-corruption group, iWatch Africa has revealed that the state has lost about 14.15 million dollars in revenue from dividends, as at October 2018.
It also indicated that the government did not have any representation on the boards of the six mining companies.
Again, the report by iWatch Africa indicated that the six firms failed to obtain the needed prior approval from the Ministry of Finance to execute their decision to plough back their profits.
However, the response from the Chamber of Mines failed to provide details on whether or not the said companies paid dividends to the state as expected of them.
Chamber of Mines refutes claims by iWatch Africa
The CEO of Ghana Chamber of Mines, Sulemanu Koney in an earlier interview on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday [May 23, 2019] said he didn’t think the iWatch Africa report was based on holistic information.
“I dare say that whatever studies have been done, including by the Auditor General, I believe it will not be a final report,” he retorted on the Citi Breakfast Show.
He also said it was unlikely the regulators of the industry, like the Minerals Commission, approved the documents used for the iWatch Africa investigation.
But a Policy Analyst with iWatch Africa, Gideon Sarpong on the same program maintained that the situation must be checked to recoup what is due the state.
“What we also found out from the Auditor General was that there was absolutely no communication whatsoever and no permission was granted to these companies when they decided to plough back their profits. We are also concerned the state is losing revenue,” he emphasized.
