Give us powers to sanction officials misusing oil money – PIAC

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) says it needs to be vested with the authority to sanction government institutions that will misappropriate revenues generated from the country’s oil and gas industry.

PIAC has authored several reports, flagging numerous breaches of the laws governing the use of oil proceeds.

In some instances, it detected millions of dollars in oil money spent on projects which did not exist or could not be traced. Despite these exposures, no action had been taken against the agencies or managers who preside over these blunders.

Speaking to Empire FM’s Nana Adjoa Entsuah, the vice president of PIAC, Kwame Jantuah said it is high time the unabated misappropriation of the country’s oil revenues stop.

“It is not the question of being able to prosecute. But it is the question of having the ability to go to the right quarters for prosecution to happen. So for many, it needs to be an independent body like CHRAJ… but CHRAJ also does not have prosecution powers,” he said.

“We have to look at the whole model of PIAC now and looking at that perhaps this question of being able to prosecute when government breaches the law might be one area that we would have to discuss,” he added.