[ 2012-05-16 ]

Dr. Kwabena Duffuor

Duffuor scores 100% on Ghana’s oil scorecard; BoG fails
A review of Ghana’s oil and gas sector by the
Institute of Economic Affairs Ghana (IEA) has
shown that considerable improvements are needed to
improve transparency and accountability, with the
sector receiving an overall P-TRAC Index score of
59.7% in 2011.

Revenue Transparency was awarded a score of 64.3%
and showed a varied result in the publication of
reports. The Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena
Duffuor, received a 100% score for publication of
petroleum receipts, and there was a good level of
information on oil and gas reserves, prices and
production values through various agencies
including the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the Ghana
National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP).


The GNPC and the MoFEP provided adequate
information on the Government’s share of oil
revenues, but the BoG received 0% for this
component. It was also found that no information
in relation to production costs associated with
oil and gas exploration and production was
publicly available.

The P-TRAC Index is a project undertaken by IEA to
promote transparency and accountability in the
management of Ghana’s precious oil and gas
resources. The 2011 P-TRAC Index measures
transparency based on the provision of publicly
available information in four key areas - Contract
Transparency, Revenue Transparency, Expenditure
Transparency and the management of the Heritage
and Stabilization Funds - for 2011.

A score is awarded based on the fulfillment of
specified criteria for each component, which is
then averaged to give an overall result.

The highest scoring component was Contract
Transparency, which measures the public disclosure
of information regarding the award of contracts,
with a score of 66.7%. The publication of
Environmental Impact Assessments by the Jubilee
Partners was awarded a score of 100%, and other
components such the establishment of the Petroleum
Commission as the authority awarding contracts,
the constitutional mandate of Parliament to ratify
and scrutinize contracts, and the openness and
competiveness of the licensing process, also
performed relatively strongly.

The publication of information on licensing by the
government, public disclosure of oil and gas
agreements, and process for appealing a license
grant application were however highlighted as
areas in need of improvement.

Expenditure Transparency scored an average of
63.9% for the frequency and quality of reports
regarding expenditures from the Government’s share
of revenues. The review of the projects receiving
funding from the oil and gas revenue and the
extent of their potential developmental impacts in
areas of priority was reasonably positive and
scored 88.6%. However, the frequency of reports on
expenditure by the MoEFP was judged not to meet
best practice standards and received a score of
only 33%.

The lowest scoring component of the Index was the
management of the Heritage and Stabilization
Funds, with an average transparency score of 44%.


While it is pleasing to see that the
constitutional requirement for the accounts of the
Funds to be audited are being fulfilled, the 2011
audited reports had not yet been published by the
Attorney General at the time the Index was
compiled. The score was also negatively impacted
by the lack of information on the performance of
the Heritage and Stabilization Funds, which is
supposed to be published semi-annually by the
BoG.

The overall 2011 score of 59.7% shows that
although some progress has been made in the year
under review to enhance transparency and
accountability in the management of Ghana’s oil
and gas resources, more needs to be done in the
coming year. The P-TRAC Index Report highlights
many areas for improvement in 2012.

Source - Citifmonline

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