IMANI Africa and a group of oversight organisations say Ghana’s Gold-for-Oil programme has lost the country billions of cedis through weak controls and possible corruption.
In a statement issued in Accra on Monday, the policy think tank said an international forensic review of the scheme found “serious governance failures, fiscal leakages and potential illicit financial flows.”
The programme was meant to use Ghana’s gold to pay for imported fuel and stabilise foreign exchange reserves.
But IMANI said the review showed it was badly managed and created “corridors for revenue loss and illicit enrichment.”
According to the group, the gold part of the programme ran without proper contracts between the Bank of Ghana and the Precious Minerals Marketing Company.
It said this allowed weak pricing controls, secret exchange rate practices and smuggling of gold.
IMANI also said about GHS 7.5 billion in tax exemptions were granted on fuel imports but poor tracking meant the state may have lost GHS 7.2 billion in revenue.
It added that some of the international suppliers chosen for the scheme had opaque ownership and links to high-risk trading networks.
The group called for all contracts, pricing benchmarks and audits to be published regularly to improve transparency.
It warned that any delay in taking action would amount to complicity.
Former National Economic Dialogue chair Dr. Ishmael Evans Yamson said the revelations showed how some people in government had worked with local and foreign actors to “undermine Ghana’s development efforts” and called for tough action.
IMANI president Franklin Cudjoe said the findings confirmed the think tank’s fears that the programme had been “systematically weaponised against the state.”
He urged the government to carry out a full vessel-by-vessel and ounce-by-ounce audit, recover lost money, and prosecute those responsible.
By: Jacob Aggrey
🔗 Follow Ghanaian Times WhatsApp Channel today. https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAjG7g3gvWajUAEX12Q
🌍 Trusted News. Real Stories. Anytime, Anywhere.
✅ Join our WhatsApp Channel now! https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbAjG7g3gvWajUAEX12Q
