Ghana’s spending of oil funds is inefficient – GACC

The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) says Ghana’s spending of oil funds is inefficient as projects funded with the resources do not serve the needs of the people.

The GACC noted that the master list of projects funded with petroleum revenue (ABFA-funded projects) showed that Ghana spent a total of over one billion Ghana cedis (GHC 1,303,419,796.26) on at least 500 projects spread across 17 thematic areas.

Madam Beauty Emafa Narteh, the Executive Secretary of the GACC, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency in an interview to look at the topic “From disclosure to impact: mobilising local civil society to verify published extractive data and advocate for equitable, accountable spending of funds,” project.

The project, which was funded by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), ran from September 2022 to September 2023.

It was built on the assumption that if a critical mass of citizens were engaged in the reports from the extractive sector and the issues were well understood, they would be equipped to effectively demand accountability, transparency, and strengthened processes regarding the use of extractive revenue.

Mrs Narteh said the pre-monitoring, mid-term, terminal, and post-monitoring activities done by the Coalition’s Local Accountability Networks (LANets) showed that the projects, which started as far back as 2011, were in various stages of completion.

It did not look to serve the needs of the people for whom they were initiated, especially when the communities were largely unaware of said projects, she said.

She said the LANets conducted monitoring exercises on 33 petroleum-revenue-Funded projects in 18 districts in six regions nationwide, using a monitoring tool designed by the GACC Project Implementation Team.

“Compared to other oil-rich countries in Scandinavia and the Gulf region, Ghana’s expenditure of its oil funds could be more efficient and strategic,” she said

Mrs Narteh said it was found that citizens living in these areas where petroleum-revenue-funded projects were being constructed, had no knowledge of the project details, cost, duration, and contractor.

The situation could be attributed to the little to no engagement of citizens by the government and contractors on the said projects.

The GACC, she added, came across a phenomenon termed as “protocol or parachute projects,” which were projects and contracts that were awarded at the national level to be implemented at the district level.

She added that often, the various district assemblies and the community members had no knowledge of these projects, which were allegedly awarded to gain political advantage.

“The district assemblies do not have any project documents and do not have any authority to oversee project construction. Furthermore, they are unable to hold the contractors accountable in the event of any mishap,” she added.

The GACC Executive Secretary said implementation was extensively delayed because of various difficulties that emerged in the process, explaining that even though the project implementation began in September 2022, monitoring took place in April, which was about eight months after the project began.

The delay, she said, was mainly due to the difficulty in accessing oil-funded project information and in obtaining introductory letters from the relevant state agencies.

She said the letters were to be presented by the LANets to their respective MMDAs ahead of their monitoring activities, indicating that despite substantive efforts made by the GACC, the list of ABFA-funded projects could not be formally obtained from the Ministry of Finance.

She said another challenge was the Coalition’s inability to obtain relevant technical inputs from the Contractors’ Association and the Chamber of Construction, as they never responded to GACC.

Another challenge to the project, she stated, was the lack of cooperation from the Ellembele District Assembly in the Western Region, with the excuse that the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) had previously conducted monitoring of said projects and could be contacted by the LANet for the needed information.

The GACC recommended that in the future, implementers should start such projects by monitoring the procurement process and involving the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) in the initial data collection.

She added that there must be regular monitoring of oil-funded projects to ensure that up-to-date information is collected and used to support monitoring and policy advocacy efforts.