Tema-Ghana, Oct. 17, – According to Mrs. Beauty Emafa Narteh, Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), projects supported by oil money are not meeting public expectations. This shows that Ghana is wasting money or not spending it strategically.
According to the GACC, at least 500 projects in 17 different subject areas received money from the master list of petroleum-funded initiatives (ABFA-sponsored projects) worth approximately one billion Ghana cedis (GHC 1,303,419,796.26).
Mrs. Narteh offered this material to reporters in order for them to study the initiative “From disclosure to impact: mobilising local civil society to verify published extractive data and advocate for equitable, accountable spending of funds.”
The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) provided project funding, and the project ran from September 2022 to September 2023.
It was predicated on the idea that if enough people read the extractive industry reports and became well-versed in the issues, they would be able to demand improved practises for the use of extractive revenue, as well as accountability and transparency.
Mrs. Narteh noted that the Coalition’s Local Accountability Networks (LANets) pre-, mid-, terminal-, and post-monitoring operations revealed that the projects, which dated back to 2011, were in various stages of completion.
Given that the communities were generally uninformed of these programmes, it didn’t appear to be meeting the needs of the people for whom it was intended.
She noted that the LANets conducted monitoring exercises on 33 projects funded by petroleum revenue in 18 districts spread over six regions of the country using a monitoring instrument developed by the GACC Project Implementation Team.
“Ghana’s use of its oil revenue could be more strategic and efficient in comparison to other oil-rich nations in the Gulf and Scandinavia.”
She added that it was revealed that residents in areas where projects sponsored by petroleum funds were being created were uninformed of the project’s specifics, such as the contractor, cost, and time.
She stated that the government and contractors working on the aforementioned projects have little to no citizen input, which may be the cause of this situation.
“The GACC discovered a phenomenon known as “protocol or parachute projects,” which are contracts and projects granted at the federal level and implemented at the local level,” she stated.
She went on to note that these initiatives, which were allegedly awarded in order to gain political advantage, were largely unknown to the population of the village and the various district assemblies.
“The district assemblies do not have the authority to supervise project construction and do not have project documentation.” Furthermore, she stated that they are unable to hold the contractors accountable for any accidents.
The GACC Executive Secretary stated that implementation was significantly delayed due to various difficulties that arose during the process, explaining that while project implementation began in September 2022, project monitoring took place in April, approximately eight months after the project began.
The delay, she explained, was primarily due to the difficulty in acquiring information about oil-funded projects and introductory letters from the necessary state agencies.
She stated that the letters would be delivered by the LANets to their respective MMDAs prior to their monitoring operations, indicating that despite substantial attempts by the GACC, the list of ABFA-funded projects could not be received properly from the Ministry of Finance.
Another problem, she claimed, was the Coalition’s inability to gather essential technical comments from the Contractors’ Association and the Chamber of Construction, both of which never replied to GACC’s overtures.
Another impediment to the project, she said, was the lack of cooperation from the Ellembele District Assembly in the Western Region, citing the Public Interest and Accountability Committee’s (PIAC) prior monitoring of the aforementioned projects as justification and the LANet’s ability to contact them for the necessary information.
The GACC recommended that the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) be included in the initial data collection for such programmes, and that implementers continue to monitor the procurement process.
She went on to explain that projects financed by the oil sector must be routinely monitored in order to ensure that current data is acquired and used to assist policy advocacy and monitoring.
