GoldBod GH¢22bn loss: Minority demands answers
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has maintained that the Minority’s concerns over the reported GH¢22 billion loss linked to the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) are not politically motivated. He said the concerns were being raised because Ghanaians deserved clear information on how public funds were being used in GoldBod’s domestic gold purchasing programme. … The post…
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, defended the concerns raised by his faction over the reported GH¢22 billion loss incurred by the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod). Mr Afenyo-Markin clarified that the criticisms were not politically motivated but were rather aimed at ensuring transparency regarding the utilization of public funds in GoldBod's domestic gold purchasing program.
At a press conference in Parliament, he maintained that the IMF report, which cited losses of approximately US$1.7 billion (GH¢22 billion), contained the figures in question. The IMF attributed these losses to service and assay fees, discount concessions on gold sales to off-takers, and exchange-rate discrepancies between the rates used to purchase gold and the reference rate utilized by the Bank of Ghana for accounting purposes.
Mr Afenyo-Markin argued that GoldBod, which played a crucial role in buying, aggregating, assaying, and exporting gold while obtaining financing from the Bank of Ghana, should be held accountable for the reported losses. He questioned why GoldBod could charge fees for these transactions yet the resulting financial losses appeared in the Bank of Ghana’s accounts.
He also expressed concerns about the risk-sharing agreement between GoldBod and the Bank of Ghana, suggesting that the institution running the commercial activity should not profit from transaction fees while another institution bears the majority of the financial risk. Mr Afenyo-Markin urged the government and GoldBod to provide clear explanations regarding the gold prices paid, the determination of those prices, the selection of off-takers, the discounts applied to gold sales, and the fees earned by GoldBod.
He emphasized that the Minority was not seeking to insult anyone but was focused on holding public institutions accountable for the management of public resources. The Minority Leader stressed that the financial consequences of the GoldBod programme ultimately impacted Ghanaian taxpayers and pledged to continue scrutinizing the program.
Written by urgent.news from Ghanaian Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
