Former President John Mahama has decried diversion of $100 million from petroleum funds for expenditure.
He indicated that Section 3 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) (Act 815) was explicit that all petroleum revenue due the Republic derived from whatever source shall be assessed, collected and accounted for by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
According to him, “Section 15 of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act (Act 919), is also clear that any borrowing exceeding the cedi equivalent of $30m for the purpose of exploration, development and production must be approved by Parliament and must be in consonance with the Petroleum Revenue Management Act.
“There can be no justification for diverting revenues accruing from the nation’s share of petroleum resources into any other account aside the Petroleum Heritage Fund and the Minister of Finance must, as a matter of urgency, repatriate all such illegal payments back into the Petroleum Heritage Fund without delay,” former President Mahama intimated.
The Minority in Parliament who broke the news in a statement expressed worry over an alleged government’s inability to account for more than$100 million accruing from Ghana’s Petroleum lifting in the first quarter of 2022.
Signed and issued by John Abdulai Jinapor, the Ranking Member on the Energy and Mines Committee of Parliament, said the Minority Caucus was alarmed that contrary to requirements of the PRMA, revenues accruing from the nation’s oil fields were not being paid into the Petroleum Holding Fund.
Former President Mahama decried that there was no record to confirm parliamentary approval on any such loans acquired by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in their work programme
He called on Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, to, as a matter of urgency repatriate all such illegal payments back into the Petroleum Heritage Fund since it was untenable to allegedly divert more than $100m from the fund for unapproved expenditure.
