Norway to sensitise Ghana in management of petroleum revenue

Accra, July 17, GNA- Ghana has been included in Norway's "oil for development programme" that aims at assisting countries in their efforts to overcome challenges in transforming income from petroleum resources to improve the welfare of their citizens. This follows contacts made by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan with the Norwegian Government to learn from Norway's experience in the art of managing petroleum resources and revenue.

Energy Minister, Mr Felix Kwasi Owusu-Adjapong, announced the collaboration, in a statement in Parliament in Accra, on Government's draft policy on oil and gas, which he said was is yet to be submitted to Cabinet. "Even though the draft policy is yet to be submitted to Cabinet for their consideration and approval and subsequent presentation to Parliament, it is our view that the document will be further enriched if Honourable Members would be able to interact with their constituency on the subject matter during the recess and thereafter avail any inputs that they may have to either the Minister responsible for Energy or even directly to the Oil and Gas Technical Committee" Mr Owusu-Adjapong said.

The Minister told the House, which would go on recess from July 18, 2008, that Norway had proposed a petroleum management programme based on three thematic pillars of resource, revenue and environmental management. However, a Government technical Committee on Oil and Gas comprising representatives from Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the Attorney General's Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and the Navy, formed to review the thematic areas, added energy security.

Mr Owusu-Adjapong added that seminars and fora had been organized in all the 10 geographical regions of Ghana, the proceedings of which "formed the bedrock for the development of Draft Oil and Gas Policy for the petroleum sector by the Oil and Gas Technical Committee." Contributions by Members encouraged the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation to participate fully in the management of the oil resources and revenue, and called for the strengthening of Ghanaian capacities, and good governance practices for the nation to reap maximum benefits from the oil find.

The House also adopted the Report of the Finance Committee on a Loan Agreement between the Government of Ghana and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development for an amount of US$15,013,250 for the partial finance of a project to modernize the Ghana National Fire Service through the acquisition of fire tenders and associated appliances.

Mr Lee Ocran (NDC-Jomoro) in a contribution that seconded the motion, expressed concern about the lack of enough fire tenders, and accommodation for the staff of the Service. He said there was no fire tender in the whole of the Jomoro District in the Western Region, and the Fire Service on a number of occasions had to rely on help from neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire in times of emergency.

Other complaints by Members were on the lack of access routes in some parts of some cities for fire tenders in emergency situations. The House also took the Road Traffic Amendment Bill, which seeks to reduce the number of penalty units for each motor traffic offence to 10 per cent of the penalty specified in the Road Traffic Act, Act 683 of 2004, through the second reading, at which the principles of the Bill were debated.

The National Pension Reform Bill, which is to provide for pension reforms in the country by the introduction of a contributory three-tier system, was also read for the second time, and the House continued the debate on the third reading on the Anti-Terrorism Bill. Aside the laying of 19 papers relating to the mining sector, papers on five credit facility agreements were also laid before the House by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu. They are: Credit Facility Agreement between the Government of Ghana and the US EXIM Bank for an amount of US$357,773,500 for the financing of the Self Help Electrification Programme, and Credit Facility Agreement between the Government of Ghana and Caylon Credit Agricole Bank of France for an amount of 85 million Euro for the Network Expansion and Loss Reduction Project of the Electricity Company of Ghana.

The third paper was a loan facility between the Governments of Ghana and Austria through Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG for an amount of 7,650,000 Euros for the construction and equipping of five polyclinics in Karaga, Kpandai, Tatale, Janya and Chereponi, all in the Northern Region of Ghana. The other two agreements were: Medium Term Loan Facility between the Government of Ghana and the Fidelity Bank for an amount of Us$7,000,000 to finance the procurement of standardised operational vehicles for the security agencies, and a Credit Finance Facility between the Government of Ghana and Goldman Sachs International, UK, for an amount of US1 billion to finance priority road infrastructure projects countrywide.