Repatriate all the illegal payments back into the Petroleum Fund – Mahama to Ofori-Atta

Former President John Dramani Mahama has called on the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to return all the illegal withdrawals he has made from the Petroleum Fund.

He said the accusation that the Finance Minister has diverted over $100 million from the Fund without Parliamentary approval should be of national concern.

In a post on Facebook, Mr. Mahama said there is no justification of the funds by the Minister.

“News that some $100 million has been diverted from petroleum funds for unapproved expenditure is most disconcerting.”

Section (15) of the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act (Act 919), is also clear that “Any borrowing exceeding the cedi equivalent of thirty million United States Dollars for the purpose of exploration, development and production shall be approved by Parliament and shall be in consonance with the Petroleum Revenue Management Act.”

Mr. Mahama further indicated that “there can be no justification for diverting revenues accruing from the nation’s share of petroleum resources into any other account aside the PHF.”

“The Minister for Finance must as a matter of urgency repatriate all such illegal payments back into the PHF without delay as there is no record to confirm parliamentary approval on any such loans acquired by GNPC in their work programme,” he added.

According to him, Section 3 of the PRMA (Act 815) is explicit that all Petroleum revenue due the Republic derived from whatever source shall be assessed, collected and accounted for by the Ghana Revenue Authority.

The Minority in Parliament who broke the news in a statement expressed worry over the government’s inability to account for over $100 million accruing from Ghana’s Petroleum lifting in the first quarter of 2022.

The statement signed by the Ranking Member on the Energy and Mines Committee of Parliament, John Abdulai Jinapor said the minority caucus is alarmed that contrary to requirements of the PRMA, revenues accruing from the nation’s oil fields are not being paid into the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF).

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