The Bank of Ghana (BoG) appears to have little or no knowledge about 40,000 metric tons of bauxite worth US$41million that was exported from the shores of Ghana in 2015.
Officials of the Central Bank seemed to have found themselves in the wonderland when their attention was drawn to the issue and why they failed to record or account for it in their 2015 audited report.
The BoG had accounted for foreign exchange receipts and payments of cocoa, gold, manganese and oil revenue made to their outfit but that of bauxite produced by the Ghana Bauxite Company was missing.
Member of Parliament for Efutu and member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin who raised the matter during the PAC sitting, Tuesday, questioned why the 40,000 metric tons of bauxite was not captured in the books of the central bank.
“Bauxite is a major export component of our economy and if for the whole year it was not captured at all, and we want to believe that this is the full report of our foreign exchange receipts, then with respect, we need answers. The bauxite which was exported was not captured at all in the report, we have only manganese. I know as a fact by way of disclosure – I am a contractor there, and I know of volumes of tonnage of bauxite that were exported within the period as a matter fact. The Minerals Commission has given reports to Parliament and we have other information. So, I want to know why that was conspicuously absent,” he noted.
The PAC had met to consider the Report of the Auditor-General on the Statement of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payment of the Bank of Ghana for the half year ended June 30, 2015 and December 31, 2015.
Dr. Johnson P. Asiamah, Second Deputy Governor, responding to the issue pleaded with the PAC to give them some time to cross check the issue and report back to them.
“Sometimes it is possible that they produce but then as to the exportation numbers, we will have to verify. We will love to come back and Mr. Chairman, if you can give us some laxity of time, we can come back,” he said.
However, he assured the Committee that issues of data is not that simple, arguing that “these are what we send to the IMF and if you’ve heard about misreporting of data and the consequences, it is really serious and so we don’t take that lightly at all. I want to believe that there is a reason for this so please let me cross check it and I will get back to you.”
He went ahead to inform the Committee that, perhaps the Ghana Bauxite Committee has 100% retention of their foreign receipts but such claim was disputed by the Efutu law maker.
Chairman of the PAC, Hon. James Klutse Avedzi, after listening to the plea of the Second Deputy Governor indulged him and further directed him to furnish the Committee with all relevant information about the 40,000 tonnes of bauxite that were exported in 2015.
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