Dr Steve Manteaw, Head of the Public Interest and Accountability Commission (PIAC) says the recent agreement reached between the government of Ghana and the US Exploration Company, Exxon Mobil is terribly stinking.
Crucial aspects of the contract, the anti-corruption crusader disclosed, runs contrary to the constitution of the Republic of Ghana and undermines the laws governing the explorative industry.
Addressing Regional, Metro, Municipal and District Coordinating Directors in the Middle Belt of the Country in Kumasi during a Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative workshop, Dr Manteaw said government has given an unusual tax waiver to the US Company.
Dr Manteaw claimed instead of year’s waiver for the foreign company to start paying revenue to the State the foreign company has been given a seven year tax amnesty.
‘’The country has been shortchanged by the recent Exxon Mobil agreement and I am not surprised because politicians think about themselves more than the State’’, Dr Manteaw tearfully posited.
REMEDY:
Calming down tempers that had flared up in the conference room due to the expose, the respected Oil and Gas watcher assured participants that parliament can remedy the trade off.
According to him, parliament can refuse to ratify the agreement between the government and the US oil company.
This, the Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Initiative disclosed is the only way the country can be saved.
The contract, Dr Manteaw noted in its current state is only a rip off of the country and called on civil society groups to dig deep into the details of it to ensure together with joint voices they stop it from being ratified by Parliament.
‘’For now our only hope is our Parliament and I pray that those who have heard me blow the alarm will make do their word by shooting it down when the contract is brought before the house for ratification’, the PIAC boss noted.
ANGER:
Beaming with profuse anger, participants who spoke to this reporter including some media personalities called for a way to stop the government from going ahead with the contract.
They wondered why rather than negotiating for a lump sum for the State the government was seeking for crumbs.
Others expressed surprise that the government was overlooking the constitution of Ghana and flouting the law governing such contracts with a multi-national company.
They wondered why Exxon Mobil had been given the rights to repatriate all the revenue it will get from the execution of this contract to the US, an act they agreed was contrary to the proper management.