Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta
Government, through the Ministry of Finance, has responded to claims made by former chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), Dr Steve Manteaw, of an amount of GH¢2,132,188,611.01 reported by him as missing oil money.
Dr Manteaw in a facebook post on December 3 claimed that the government has not been able to account for the said amount and went on to ask “why would you vote for a government that has failed to fully account for your oil revenues.”
Misrepresentation
However, according to the Ministry of Finance in a statement, it is misleading to suggest that an amount of GH¢2,132,188,611.01 of oil revenues is missing from the books.
The government stated that it has “noted that Dr Manteaw erroneously presents the cumulative unutilised ABFA balances for 2017/18/19 of GH¢1,479.90 million as the closing balance for 2019 alone, then adds the 2017/18 closing balances of GH¢400.91 and GH¢251.38 thus inflating the cumulative ABFA closing balances by an additional GH¢652.29 million, bringing his cumulative closing balance to GH¢2,132.19 million as reported in his Facebook post.”
The statement explained that the sum of the unutilised (closing) balance of GH¢652.29 million for 2017/2018, were subsequently transferred to the Road Fund Secretariat, under the Ministry of Roads and Highways and utilised in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Revenue Management (PRM) Act, 2011 (Act 815), as amended, to reduce the Fund’s indebtedness to road contractors and creditor banks.
“The 2019 unutilised (closing) ABFA balance of GH¢827.60 million, on the other hand, was utilised in 2020 to partially meet the funding shortfall of GH¢2,679.99 million from the approved 2020 ABFA Budget of GH¢4,336.18 million caused by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in a supply glut which then impacted negatively on crude oil prices globally,” it further explained.
“From the explanation provided above which was hitherto conveyed unambiguously in our letter No.ESRD/EPU/30/06/20 to PIAC (copy attached), and also at the meeting of the Finance Committee of Parliament on the 2019 PIAC report, it is misleading to suggest that an amount of GH¢2,132,188,611.01 of oil revenues is missing from the books.
“Indeed, Ghana’s PRMA, touted as one of the best petroleum management laws in the world, provides the requisite controls in addition to our PFM laws and regulations to ensure that our oil resources are properly and efficiently utilised and accounted for,” the statement added.
Source: dailystatesman.com.gh
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