The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has urged the government to rectify and end the five-year breach of the Petroleum Revenue Management regulations on the Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF).
PIAC noted that the current government had a responsibility to ensure that the breach, which has persisted since 2021, was addressed to allow for the proper application of the capping formula for the GSF.
It noted that, based on Regulation 8 of the Legislative Instrument (LI). 2381, the retention of the current cap of US$100 million needed to be revised to an amount of US$584.22 million.
“The closing balance on the Fund of US$122.91 million may not be adequate when the country faces a very serious challenge and will need to rely on this Fund to survive,” said Odeefuo Amoakwa Buadu VIII – PIAC Vice Chair.
He was speaking at the media briefing on the launch of the 2025 Semi-Annual Report for the Management and Utilisation of Petroleum Revenue.
He explained that the purpose of the GSF is to allow the government to access funds in case of unanticipated shortfalls in petroleum revenue or economic shocks that required the government to find other sources of funding to balance the budget.
According to the report, an amount of US$44.5 million, representing 70 per cent of the disbursement to Ghana Petroleum Funds (GPFs) for the period, was paid into the Ghana Stabilisation Fund in compliance with the provisions of the PRMA.
“The amount is 25.87 percent of the projected allocation to the GSF, and 48.78 percent of the disbursement to GSF for the same period in 2024,” the report highlighted.
Since inception an amount of US$2.6 billion of petroleum receipts have been paid into the GSF.
The Ghana Stabilisation Fund and the Ghana Heritage Fund which make up the GSFs are meant to be invested in financial instruments for sustaining public expenditure capacity during periods of unanticipated petroleum revenue shortfalls and serve as an endowment to support the development of future generations, respectively.
A strong risk management framework supports the investment process of the GPFs. The framework of compliance rules is coded into the investment platforms monitored and implemented by the Risk Management and Compliance Unit of the Bank of Ghana.
