Government is not taking galamsey activities lightly - Minister

Accra, March 28, GNA - Mr Peter John Amewu, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources on Tuesday affirmed government’s commitment to fight against activities of ‘galamsey’ operators which turn to pollute water bodies and deplete farm lands in the country.

“Government is not taking galamsey activities lightly at all. We are serious about it. We cannot allow these activities to continue…government would soon roll-out measures in the coming weeks to stem their activities,” Mr Amewu stated.

The Minister spoke to media practitioners after the inauguration of the Ministry’s Audit Committee at a ceremony in Accra.

Mr Amewu commended the media for the advocacy carried out against the activities of galamsey operators, adding; “with the kind of sentiments displayed by the public, measurers taken against operators by government would not generate any hue and cry”.

The Minister therefore appealed to the media to continue to offer the needed support as the government marshalled forces to combat the activities of galamsey operators.

On the inauguration of the Committee, the Minister assured the members that the Ministry would support it to deliver on their mandate effectively in order to achieve the government’s agenda.

He therefore, entreated the Audit Committee to regard themselves as “partners in development and to always make national interest paramount in the discharge of your duties.

“I wish to charge incoming members of the Committee to apply the principles of integrity, honesty, objectivity and humility in all that they do,” Mr Amewu added.

The five- member Committee include Mr Isaac Amartey, a representative from the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) as their chairman.

Other members are Mr Amewu, Professor Bruce Baneong-Yakubu, Chief Director of the Ministry, Mr Samuel Gyekye-Mensah a representative of IAA and Mr Samuel Baimbill-Johnson a representative of Institute of Chartered Accountant.

The Audit Committee formally known as Audit Committee Report Implementation (ARIC) was a statutory and high level independent corporate governance committee in the Public Sector Financial Management System.

It is mandated to follow up on the implementation of audit recommendation to ensure efficient and effective utilisation of public resources in line with the objectives of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA).

According to the PMFA, 2016, Act 921, the Audit Committee at the Ministerial level consists of five members including two top management members from the Ministry.

The three other independent members are also drawn from IAA and ICA.

Mr Ransford Agyei, Acting Director General of IAA, who sworn in the five member committee, reminded members that six month after the end of each financial year, they were required to submit reports to the Office of the President, Parliament and Auditor General.

According to Mr Agyei, they were also mandated to pursue the implementation of Parliament’s decision on the Auditor General’s Report and indicated the remedial action taken to avoid recurrence of undesirables feature in the accounts of operations of the Ministry.

GNA

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