This according to Mr. Steve Manteaw, raised serious concerns about value for money on the projects.
Speaking at the Speaker of Parliament breakfast forum with the theme “challenges in the gold mining sector and the lessons for the oil and gas sector; implications for policy in Ghana”, at Parliament House in Accra, Dr. Manteaw raised issues over the repeated breaches of the Act.
“The breach is in respect of a provision requiring the Minister of Finance every year to submit to Parliament, a reconciliation report on the management of Petroleum revenues and in that report the minister is expected to indicate the stage of execution of all oil funded projects.
Over the period since we started producing oil in this country, the previous Ministers and the current Minister have not complied with that provision in terms of giving us updates on the stage of completion of oil projects, “
He explained that a project inspection undertaken by PIAC recently revealed that a lot of the projects are non-existent, with those in existence deteriorating barely a year into their completion, which raises “serious concerns” about quality of spending and value for money considerations that underpin the use of oil revenues.
Dr. Manteaw, also maintained that he has brought it to the attention of the Finance Committee of Parliament and at the Speaker’s forum in the hope that Parliament that passed the law would be minded to see to the compliance of the law, so that the country does not get into a situation where Parliament passes a law and goes to sleep and do not care whether it is being complied with or not.
Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, who was the brain behind the forum to dialogue with stakeholders stated that self-examination in the oil sector was critical and there is the need to be more accountable and transparent to avoid the deficiencies in the past.
The PRMA 2011 provides a framework for the collection, management of petroleum revenue m a responsible, accountable and sustainable manner for the benefit of Ghana in accordance with Article 36 of the Constitution.
It is also expected to regulate the collection, allocation and management by government of petroleum revenue derived from upstream midstream petroleum operations.
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Source: Sammy Agyei//Frontpageghana.com
