Government non-disclosure on gold-for-oil programme problematic – Jantuah

The Chairman of the Political Affairs Committee of the CPP, Kwame Jantuah has expressed worry about the government’s lack of information on the gold-for-oil policy.

Reports were rife that the first consignment of oil was purchased with cash from the Bank of Ghana.

However, the Bank of Ghana has denied knowledge of the details of the transaction in government’s gold-for-oil barter deal.

The 1st Deputy BoG Governor, Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari on Friday, January 3, 2023, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the central bank is only involved in the purchase of gold and not the exchange.

This was in response to a question posed by the Ningo-Prampram MP, Sam George asking whether he was aware the first consignment of the 40,000 metric tons of oil brought into the country was paid for with cash.

Commenting on the development on Starr FM Weekly Review Program, Mr. Jantuah stated that the government is creating room for questions on the program.

“Where is the money coming from, is Bank of Ghana loaning money to the government to do this? They say it’s a barter but they have sold gold, who did they sell it through or they sold it through a gold trader? How did the traders charge to sell oil to Ghana, so they have gotten money where did that money go? Where have they kept that money or that money has been kept in a Bank of Ghana offshore account?"

“How much is the money, out of this money that the gold was sold how much of that money was used to purchase the 40,000 metric ton of oil? We don’t know anything about that. Then buying the petroleum, they bought from another international oil trader?"

“So if they bought it from Russia there is a trader who is fronting for Russia, it could be Lethasco but we don’t know whether Lethasco is a special purpose vehicle that is handling this entire thing. If it is Lethasco then there must be an independent trader. How much did that independent trader charge?”

Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana has assured the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that it will provide the requisite documents on the ounces of gold used for the first consignment of the gold for the oil deal.

“What I can confirm is that the gold is being purchased in local currency [in cedis] so it is a conversion of our local assets into foreign assets, and then it is being purchased at the world market price. We use the Bloomberg and Reuters market prices to purchase the gold.”

“I will beg the committee because I do not have the full details now…the details of the transaction would be presented before the committee in due course.”