News:
Majority chief whip
June 14, 2025
Minority Chief Whip Frank Annoh Dompreh has cautioned the John Dramani Mahama led administration to desist from breaching Article 268 (1 & 2) of the 1992 constitution and bring mining lease agreement extensions it has granted to Gold Fields Damang to Parliament for scrutiny and ratification.
According to him he has taken his time to research and investigate and can reveal that the current government has extended the lease agreement and currently there is a company aggressively mining, meanwhile the agreement has not come before parliament.
But there is a Supreme Court ruling on this matter as the John Mahama is taking people’s representatives for granted and wating to bring it at a later hour.
“All because, they have two-third majority in parliament and think it is going to be a rubber stamp thing, it’s wrong and should be brought to the attention of Ghanaians”, he stated in an interview.
Article 268 (1) of the 1992 Constitution states; “Any transaction, contract or undertaking involving the grant of a right or concession by or on behalf of any person including the Government of Ghana, to any other person or body of persons howsoever described, for the exploitation of any mineral, water or other natural resource of Ghana made or entered into after the coming into force of this Constitution shall be subject to ratification by Parliament”.
And Article 268 (2) – “Parliament may, by resolution supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of Parliament, exempt from the provisions of clause (1) of this article any particular class of transactions, contracts or undertakings”.
The Nsawam Adoagyiri lawmaker further pointed out that, in the passage of the Gold Board Bill at the second reading in the report, matters on land reclamation, water bodies reclamation and environmental sustainability have been, left to the back burner.
And if one looks at the report, there was no single amount of money or budget line for the reclamation of land, water bodies and also to ensure sustainable mining.
“The gold that would come out of the mining activities you have allocated close to four hundred million dollars to Gold board, yet the activities that would bring the gold, the minerals nothing has been done”.
He recounted that at the vetting of the sector Minister, Emmanuel Kofi Armah Buah, he did say, there was going to be categorisation in the mining sector for easy monetisation, monitoring but that has not been done. 
“We in the Minority, President John Mahama is slapping this in the face of us; this should be dealt with, I have raised it twice on the floor of the House and the majority leader came to say well he agrees with me. But it is one thing agreeing with me and another thing with patriotism to ensure that government brings the lease agreement to parliament”.
The Nsawam Adoagyiri MP also disclosed that the Minority is expecting the Agreement to come for scrutiny. “We cannot give mining agreement to companies who would not mine responsibly; who would mine and leave behind devastating effect on the environment; it’s getting out of hand; it’s high time we bring this issue up again”.
In addition, it should not be simplified to galamsey fight, “I am speaking to responsible mining, sustainable mining, water body reclamation, and land reclamation because they are inter connected. Land reclamation has effect on food security, water reclamation has effect on water born diseases which would affect us”.
Furthermore, when we leave heavy metals in our water bodies it has far reaching effects. In some other parts of the world like South Africa and Botswana all these countries who do mining, they have defined a responsible way of taking care of their environment, yes the mineral is important but what about our health, he queried.
He advised the government to provide budget in the mid-year budget to ensure there is land reclamation, and water reclamation.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com