READ ACTUAL GHEITI 2014 REPORT ON MINING, OIL & GAS

Government received an amount of 972 million, 92 thousand, 848 Ghana Cedis as against a reported payment of 972 million, 787 thousand, 529 Ghana Cedis by mining companies in 2014. 

However, a final net discrepancy of 694 thousand, 681 Ghana Cedis was recorded by the Ghana Extractive Industries’ Transparency Initiative, GHEITI.

CorporateTax was identified as the largest mining revenue received by the government during the year. 

This is contained in the 2014 Mining Sector GHEITI Report as presented to the major stakeholders at a dissemination workshop at Obuasi in the Ashanti region. 

The Ghana Extractive Industries’ Transparency Initiative, GHEITI, is the local version of the Extractive Industries’ Transparency Initiative, EITI, a global  body which closely monitors payments and utilization of revenues from the mining and oil and gas sectors. 

GHEITI’s latest report details the activities of companies in the mining, oil and gas exploration sectors of the Ghanaian economy in 2014. 

The report captures the employment generation detailing the local and expatriate components in each of the companies, their recorded payments to the government in relation to government’s recorded receipt of income from these sectors. 

After capturing these separate reports, GHEITI then analyzed the figures, reconciled them and was able to determine whether or not there is any discrepancy in the claims by either of the two parties. 

Under the year under review, in the mining sector, government’s revenues were generated from mining licenses, ground rent, property rates, royalties, corporate taxes, dividends and environmental permitting fees.   

One of the findings in the Report is that, during the period under review, while the mining sector companies in general claimed to have paid a total of694 thousand, 681 Ghana Cedis, government’s record showed a receipt of972 million, 92 thousand,848 Ghana Cedis. 

GHEITI’s later analysis however showed a total discrepancy figure of 694 thousand, 681 Ghana Cedis. 

In the Report on the oil and gas sector, while records indicated that the Petroleum Holding Fund received an amount of 978 million, 886 thousand, 379 Dollars, records showed that government actually received an amount of 977 million, 184 thousand, 638 Dollars with the difference resulting from surface rentals of the exploration companies among others. 

The dissemination workshop at Obuasi brought together representatives of almost all the key players in the extractive industry to appraise themselves of the Reconciliatory report of revenue payment, receipt and utilization from the two sectors. 

 The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. John Alexander Ackon, said ‘Ghana needs to learn from countries such as Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago which have maximized the socio-economic benefits of mining and the extractive sectors to the advantage of the country and the people.’ 

An official from the Minerals Commission, Mr. Amponsah Tawiah, emphasized the need to balance public expectations about the benefits from the mining and exploration companies against the profit margins of the companies particularly in this era when there are serious external factors undermining profitability. 

On his part, the Director of Policy Planning and Monitoring of the Ministry of Petroleum, Mr. Joseph Okine, expressed satisfaction with the fact that Ghana has a law to guide the utilization of oil revenues and  a policy on local content in the oil and gas industry less than six years after the country began producing its first oil.

 Reading the address of a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mrs. Mona Quartey, a Principal Economist at the Ministry, Mr. Franklin Ashiadey, admitted that findings and recommendations captured by the GHEITI Report have greater effect on policy change. 

In an interview, the Consultant to GHEITI, Mr. Kwaku Boamponsem, commended government for acting on recommendations of previous GHEITI Reports with specific reference to the enactment of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act.