Gold for oil programme not barter – Kwame Jantuah

Chairman and Member of the Political Affairs Committee of the Convention People’s Party, Kwame Jantuah has criticized the government’s ‘Gold for Oil’ programme indicating that it will not bring an end to Ghana’s fuel crisis.

According to him, the terms of the programme are not barter as the managers of the economy preached.

“The Bank of Ghana provides the money, they buy the gold through Precious Mineral Marketing Company, PMMC, they then sell the gold to a trader and the money is put in an extra account and that is used to purchase the oil”, he explained.

He made this statement in response to CSOs' demand for transparency in the Gold for oil programme published by the Daily Graphic.

He added that the programme is a replication of an old programme in a different way as the government is not transparent on how the programme will be carried out in terms of the persons involved, how much they make from the sales of the gold and the cost involved in the purchase of the oil.

Jantuah also noted that the government's claims that they get the oil at a cheaper price might be true but cannot be verified because of the government’s failure to be transparent.

According to him, the permanent solution to Ghana’s oil crisis is to revamp the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).

He said an estimated amount of $500 million is required to fix TOR.