The Deputy Minister of Energy Dr. Mohamed Amin Adam has said Ghana is making conscious efforts to ensure transparency and good governance in the management of the country’s oil resources.
According to him, it is important to avoid mistrust among citizens and ensure equitable growth for the harmonious operations of international oil companies in Ghana.
Dr Amin Adam said that the government is doing all it can to promote transparency in all contracts.
The deputy minister was speaking at the ongoing Africa Oil Week conference taking place in South Africa. It started from Sunday, 4 November and will end on Friday, 9 November 2018.
He explained that: “Contract transparency is still not very broad on our continent because only two countries out of the 18 producer countries have adopted contract transparency. Those closing our contract, the secondary contract, primary contract for their citizens, should be able to scrutinise what their governments have negotiated for them”.
He added that: “…There is a need for us to do more work in the area of contract transparency. The other issue where we still have a challenge with has to do with the beneficiary ownership information, most people think that this information is commercially sensitive; some people think otherwise and I think otherwise and Ghana thinks otherwise. For this reason, Ghana recently adopted a requirement for the disclosure of the beneficiary ownership information in our regulations.