Govt committed to transparent management of oil revenue

Page 13, May 31, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Minister of Information, Mr John Tia Akologu, has assured Ghanaians about the government’s commitment to the transparent management of the revenue that will accrue from the country’s oil find.
He said the resolve of the government was evident in all the processes leading to the drafting of the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill during which consultative meetings were held throughout the country to solicit inputs and comments from the general public.
Mr Akologu was addressing a day’s capacity building and sensitisation workshop for media practitioners on the emerging oil and gas industry in Accra on Wednesday.
It was organised by the Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment (KITE) in collaboration with the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) and the Oil and Gas Stakeholders Network (OGSN).
Mr Akologu said that the government had agreed to the extension of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (EITI) principles to the management of petroleum revenue.
He said many oil-producing countries were often linked with poverty and instability as a result of the mismanagement of oil revenue.
The minister of information noted that Ghana had been fortunate enough because it had the opportunity to learn from the experience of others.
“We do not have to wait to be reminded that oil wealth offers major opportunities, but can also lead to many problems if mismanaged”, he stated.
He called on media practitioners to avail themselves of the number of workshops being organised by both the government and non-governmental organisations to have an in-depth knowledge of the oil and gas industry to be able to report accurately.
In a speech read on his behalf, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr Ransford Tetteh, reminded the media practitioners that they had a watch-dog role to play to ensure transparency and accountability in the oil industry right from its embryonic stages.
“The media must be on the front-line of disseminating impartial news to ensure transparency and good governance in the industry to provide the necessary blessings to Ghana’s economy”.
He said the GJA believed that such training workshops were capable of making a real difference in helping journalists understand the industry for them to also help the citizenry to understand the oil and gas industry better.
In his remarks, a member of the Oil and Gas Stakeholders Network (OGSN) and the Chief Executive Officer of Karlindom Innovations, Mr Augustine Ampoma-Gudom, called on the government to engage the media and civil society to professionally manage the heightened expectation of the masses before the production of the oil in the last quarter of the year.
He said that it would be difficult for the government to explain why the price of fuel must go up when the international price surges at a time Ghana was producing oil, if the masses were not properly educated.
Mr Ampoma-Gudom also advised the GJA to develop stronger ties with NGOs and international initiatives such as the EITI in promoting good governance and proper stewardship in the oil and gas sector.
“Posterity will not forgive the generation of today if we fail to put in place concrete structures to ensure that we obtain enough benefit from our oil find.”