The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has said that upon Parliament’s resumption, the Minority will file a motion to compel the management of the Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD) to account for the losses it is incurring.
Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, August 18, Afenyo-Markin appealed to the NDC lawmakers not to use their supermajority in Parliament to block the motion.
“Don’t use your supermajority to stop scrutiny of GoldBod operations. Our motion is ready; we have filed, and when we get back next week, we pray that you, the Majority, will support the motion,” he said.
He stated that they are going to scrutinise the 22 billion Cedis in losses at GOLDBOD.
“If one state institution is responsible for buying, aggregating, assaying, and exporting gold and another state institution supplies the capital and bears virtually all the downside, Parliament is entitled to ask whether the risk allocation is prudent.
“GoldBod is using the Bank of Ghana as an alter ego to evade accountability. Its earnings are clean on the surface but dirty in substance,” he said.
He further stated that the GoldBod losses amount to a structural bleeding of the national purse and reflect misaligned government policies.
“The IMF tells us that 17% of the value of every ounce of gold sold by the Bank of Ghana simply disappeared. It vanished through the rate paid to miners and the rate used in the books. This is a structural bleeding of our national purse.”
Leave a Comment