Mahama: Diversion Of $100M Petroleum Funds “Disconcerting”
Former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama has expressed concerns about the alleged diversion of $100 million accrued from Ghana’s Petroleum lifting in the first quarter of 2022.
He described the news as “disconcerting” in a social media post.
“Section 3 of the PRMA (Act 815) is explicit that all Petroleum revenue due the Republic derived from whatever source shall be assessed, collected, and accounted for by the Ghana Revenue Authority.
“Section (15) of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act (Act 919), is also clear that “Any borrowing exceeding the cedi equivalent of thirty million United States Dollars for the purpose of exploration, development, and production shall be approved by Parliament and shall be in consonance with the Petroleum Revenue Management Act”.”
He, therefore, noted that there can be no justification for the government’s decision to divert the country’s share of the revenues from petroleum.
He echoed calls of the minority in Parliament to repatriate the funds back to where they belong.
“The Minister for Finance must as a matter of urgency repatriate all such illegal payments back into the PHF without delay as there is no record to confirm parliamentary approval on any such loans acquired by GNPC in their work programme”.
A press statement dated September 30, from the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee, John Abdulai Jinapor said 944,164 barrels of crude lifting in the Jubilee and TEN fields were transferred to a company established outside Ghana without Parliamentary approval.
Additionally, he said, “We have become aware that following the acquisition of a Seven per cent (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”.
He added 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”.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
