There is a link between gold smuggling menace and political party financing - Dr. Acheampong

There is a link between the smuggling of gold, the financing of political parties and their activities in the country, says an Economist and Political Risk Analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong.

He explained that while the country's borders continue to be porous, the practice of illegalities accompanied with it are emboldened by the manipulations of persons within the direct corridors of powers.

"The borders we have are very porous. You go and chase them in Kotoka today, tomorrow, they are in Mali. There's a lot of insider manipulation, there are people within the system that are gaining it for their own advantage and that is like entrenching corruption as well. So, when you look at all our entry points in Ghana; from Tema to Accra and a few of the other places, the issues, whether it is gold or smuggling, they come back to the same set of causal factors.

"The question then is how do we address it? At the core is the political economy, at the core is how we incentivize people, and if we don't address the insider manipulation bit, the involvement of the state side actors, unfortunately, we'll just be chasing around the bush," he said.

With the country losing up to some $5 billion yearly, as recent reports have indicated, Dr. Theo Acheampong has maintained that is owes to the fact that political activities, politicians and people in the place of power are unable to fight them.

This, he added, is because they benefit directly from them and so it becomes hard to bite the hands that feed them.

"The illicit financial flows is a big deal and if you do a lot of the work in this together with the transfer pricing, you see a connection between that and the funding of political party activities all across Ghana and in Africa at large. So, in one breathe, what these cartel and syndicates are doing, is buying the state side actors and at the same time supporting the political activities in the country and through various illegal means and that makes addressing the problem a bit more difficult and deeply entrenched," he explained.

Dr. Theo Acheampong made this known on the Saturday, March 27, 2021, edition of Newsfile on the JoyNews channel.