News:
May 31, 2018
Ranking member on Finance is accusing government of diverting oil revenues into the implementation of campaign promises in breach of the Petroleum Revenue Act.
In an interview with the media in Parliament, Casiel Ato Forson noted that the practice is affecting other sectors of the economy that ought to benefit from the oil funds.
“Someone is tactically breaching the Petroleum Revenue Management Act,” Mr. Forson said on Tuesday.
He said the government is also breaching the Ghana Infrastructure and Investment Fund Act by choosing to divert the oil revenues into funding other activities.
According to the Ajumako Enyan Essiam Constituency MP, the government has diverted the funds into activities, including the free Senior High School policy.
The Petroleum Revenue Management Act (815) which was passed in 2011 regulates the collection, allocation and management of oil revenues by the government.
The Act says in part “For any financial year, a minimum of seventy percent of the Annual Budget Funding Amount shall be used for public investment expenditures consistent with the long-term national development plan.”
Rather than going by the law of the country, the MP said the government is spending a chunk of the money on consumption instead of physical infrastructure.
“I don’t think it is something that we should encourage. I think as people of this country we should be interested in the matter,” he said.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com