Oil money and Western demands COMMITTEE OPTS FOR STATUS QUO

Frontpage, Nov 20, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Joint Parliamentary Committee on Finance and Mines and Energy has made a strong appeal to the government to come up with a policy that will target the accelerated development of the Western Region.
The committee made the appeal after it failed to endorse the petition of the chiefs of the region for the ceding of 10 per cent of the expected petroleum revenue into a fund for the development of the Western Region.
“It is the view of the committee that ceding 10 per cent of the petroleum revenue to a fund for the Western Region may defeat one of the primary objectives of the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill, which is to avoid the ring-fencing of petroleum revenues,” it stated.
It explained that it was for that reason that acts establishing statutory funds, such as the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), the Roads Fund and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), did not apply to petroleum revenues.
The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, last Wednesday referred a petition by the Western Regional House of Chiefs to the committee for consideration as part of its report on the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill.
In its report, the committee acknowledged that even though the Western Region was endowed with many resources which had been used to support the development of the country over the years, it had suffered under-development for many years.
It, therefore, called for steps to be taken by the government to expedite the development of the region.
“It is also the considered view of the committee that other concerns of the chiefs of the region cannot be addressed by this bill,” the report said and recommended that due cognisance be given to those concerns in the consideration of the Petroleum (Exploration and Production) Bill, 2010 and the drafting of the local content policy.
The petition of the chiefs appealed to the House to, among other things, establish a Western Region Development Fund under the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill into which 10 per cent of the petroleum revenue would be paid.
The chiefs also called for the representation of the region on the Investment Advisory Committee, the Public Interest Accountability Committee, as well as all other governing bodies of institutions under the laws relating to oil and gas.
In addition, 10 per cent of the membership of the Oil and Gas Commission to be established should be indigenes of the region, while oil companies should be encouraged to employ and give business opportunities to indigenes of the region.
Furthermore, they called for the establishment of a fund to take care of any environmental disaster that might arise as a result of exploration and production activities.
Meanwhile, the Second Reading of the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill, which was to begin on the floor of the House yesterday, was deferred to Monday due to some concerns raised by the Minority.
Before the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Seth Tekpeh, could move the motion for the second reading, the NPP MP for Essikado/Ketan, Mr Joe Ghartey, raised two concerns bordering on the Constitution and procedures.
He reminded the House that on November 12, 2010, the MP for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Mr P.C. Appiah-Ofori, had raised a matter on the need for the House to deal with the Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill before considering the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill.
Mr Ghartey referred to the Hansard of that day and stated that the Speaker, Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo, had ruled that the leadership should consider the matter. He, therefore, wondered why that ruling had not been adhered to.
He also informed the House about Article 269 of the Constitution which called for the establishment of a commission to be responsible for the regulation, management and utilisation of natural resources, such as oil and gas.
In his ruling, Mr Adjaho said the Speaker had only made a suggestion to the leadership of the House to look at the concerns expressed by Mr Appiah-Ofori and had asked the House to continue with the debate on the bill and the Executive to bring a bill for the establishment of the commission in a reasonable time.
“Honourable members, it is my view that the motion must go on but the bill for the commission should be brought before the House within a reasonable time. We have been dealing with oil since time immemorial and I do not want us to believe that what we have done over the years was null and void,” he said.
Even though the Deputy Minority Leader, Mr Ambrose Dery, called on the House to deal with the basic things before the utilisation of the oil revenue, Mr Adjaho insisted that they should start the process now and wait for the Executive to bring the other bill.
With that, Mr Tekpeh moved the motion for the second reading of the bill, but before anybody could second the motion, the Majority Leader, Mr Cletus Avoka, appealed to Mr Adjaho to stand down the motion.
Mr Avoka said in the light of the latest development, and because the bill was of national importance, everybody should be brought on board.