[ 2016-08-24 ]

PIAC wants gov’t to invest oil revenues in other sectors
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee
(PIAC) says government must invest into other
sectors as the revenues from oil alone cannot
sustain the country’s economy.

Professor Paul Buah-Bassuah, Chairman for PIAC
said this during a meeting with heads of the
decentralized departments, traditional rulers,
assembly members, opinion leaders and the media
to educate the participants on the management and
utilization of the oil revenue generated in the
country.

He explained that the country receives only five
percent of the royalty interest from the oil
revenues and out of that, 70 per cent goes to the
Annual Budget Fund Amount (ABFA), while 30 percent
goes to Ghana Petroleum Fund (GPF).

He revealed further that 30 per cent is then
divided into two parts and 70 percent is given to
the Ghana Stabilization Fund (GSF) while 30
percent is sent to the Ghana Heritage Fund.

Professor Buah-Bassuah said the country seemed to
have placed all its hopes and expectations on the
oil sector forgetting that other resources such as
cocoa, timber and Shea nut among others could also
generate much revenue if adequate attention is
given to them.

He explained that until the country is able to
discover more oil fields it cannot get any
meaningful revenue from the petroleum sector as
what was being generated was too small to
stabilize the country’s economy.

He said the Petroleum Revenue Management Act
(PRMA) required that not more than 70 per cent of
government’s share of petroleum revenue for each
financial year should be earmarked as Annual
Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), when the ABFA
quarterly allocation is fully met.

He said the GPF received funds only after the net
petroleum receipts had exceeded the quarterly
ABFA, however, the allocation of the petroleum
revenue during the first half of 2015 was based on
that formula, which meant that no transfers were
made into the GPFs since the ABFA quarterly were
not met.

Participants at the meeting expressed worry about
the way the oil revenue was being utilized and
called on government to spend the petroleum
revenue specifically on projects that would
produce real development.

Source - B&FT

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