Work of Ghana’s oil revenue watchdog hampered by lack of funds

The integrity of Ghana’s oil and gas resources will be better protected when the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) is given a strong legal status, observed Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Executive Director of the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).

PIAC is a statutory body mandated to monitor and evaluate compliance of the Petroleum Revenue Management Law and ensure prudent use of petroleum revenues by government and various state agencies.

But this mandate to ensure Ghana’s oil revenue is prudently used is hampered by funding constraints hitting the revenue management watchdog.

According to PIAC’s Yaw Owusu Addo, the Committee, as at the beginning of the 2015, had a meager Gh1,000 in its coffers to run activities. This lack of funds has placed huge limitation for the committee to do its work.

“Our situation is dire, very dire,” he exclaimed. “This year we haven’t got any funding for our budget; it is only the benevolence of some benefactors which is allowing us to survive up to today but the money that must come from the taxpayer to support us so that we do this job is not forthcoming.”

PIAC’s annual reports on the management of petroleum revenues serve to inform the Ghanaian public on revenue and expenditure in the oil sector.

Dr. Amin Adam, however, says the legal status of PIAC is very weak as it lacks the power to summon public officials for information and also to go beyond the Attorney-General to proceed to court to prosecute people against whom adverse findings have been made in the mismanagement of petroleum revenue.

He therefore wants the Committee’s capacity adequately built to deliver its mandate.

“I have so much respect for the members of PIAC; these are members who are not coming from the industry background, they are coming from different backgrounds as journalists, as lawyers, as accountants, as traditional rulers, and so they need a strong secretariat with all the technical capacity and if they don’t have that they should be able to have consultants attached to the secretariat,” he requested.

The ACEP boss believes such capacity is critical to enable the Committee undertake its own independent analysis and technical work on the use of the country’s oil revenues.

Dr. Amin Adam hopes a review of the Petroleum Revenue Law should empower the Committee to leverage on its work done so far.

“PIAC in its current state can still play a significant role if they are given the capacity, in terms of the resources,” he noted.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh 

Food tourism: Mama Ashanti rocks East Africa with Ghanaian dishes

Uganda, like Ghana, is an emerging oil producer on the African continent.

Both economies have a lot of share and learn to ensure transparency and accountability in the oil and gas industry lead to improvements in livelihood of local people and general economic growth.

But there are other opportunities for small businesses in East and West Africa to exploit to drive economic prosperity of the continent.

A Ghanaian-run restaurant and bar in Kampala, Uganda is setting the pace.

Kofi Adu Domfeh reports of tantalizing meals of ‘Mama Ashanti’ and the business of serving the East with West African dishes.

Petropolitics: Africa oil economies vulnerable to paradox of poverty amidst plenty

Emerging oil and gas producing countries in Africa, including Ghana, are vulnerable to the paradox of poverty amidst the abundance of natural resources.

According to Ugandan-based independent policy analyst, Godber Tumushabe, “oil can be the price for freedom” but the politics of oil governance tends to push local people, especially those living close to resources, to the fringes of poverty.

“The problem of the extractive sector in many African countries is not caused by policy or any forms of the law, but by the greedy politicians who want to monopoly the wealth that comes from the mineral sector,” he observed.

The commercial production of oil in Ghana has yet to satisfy high public expectations in delivery of social goods, including quality education, roads, healthcare and job creation.

Such hopes are heightened with global giants in the oil sector – Chevron, Shell and Exxon Mobil – expressing interest to prospect oil in the country.

Ugandans also anticipate an emerging oil and gas economy that would transform their livelihoods.

But Mr. Tumushabe says it is only in democratizing decision-making over natural resources that African countries can avoid the trap of impoverishing its people.

“If you are to deal with the paradox of plenty and poverty, you need to have systems where the leaders are accountable to the citizens for every decision they make,” he said.

In natural resource dependent communities, political power determines access to natural resources and vice versa, observed Mr. Tumushabe.

He therefore believes civic consciousness and competence are critical in empowering citizens to ask and demand answers to the management of petroleum resources.

Parliaments and the judiciary should also be able to exert oversight over the executive arm of government.

The 2013 Africa Progress Report says millions of Africans have lost trust in the capacity and concern of their governments to manage natural resource assets in the public interest.

Mr Dozith Abeinomugisha, Geologist with Uganda’s Energy Ministry, is confident the oil and gas industry can help deliver the benefits when technical persons are given the room to steer affairs with less political interference.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh, in Kampala-Uganda