Ghana must adopt Production Sharing Agreement for oil revenue – GIGS
By Edmund
Smith-Asante, ACCRA
A Senior
Research Fellow at the Ghana Institute of Governance and Security (GIGS), Mr
Solomon Kwawukume, has strongly advocated that Ghana must adopt the Production
Sharing Agreement (PSA) system to stem the massive loss of oil revenue to the
state.
The press
conference was held by GIGS on the 2014 Petroleum Exploration and Production
Bill that is currently before Parliament.
Loss to the state
According
to Mr Kwawukume, Ghana earned total oil revenue of US$2.557 billion out of
US$12.510 billion as of September 30, 2014, which represented 20.50 per cent,
far below the international standard of 42 per cent to 60 per cent “Minimum
Government Take” set by the United States’ Government Accountability Office
(GAO).
Foreign
oil companies made US$9.953 billion in revenue, while Ghana lost over US$3
billion under the Modern Concession system as of September 30, 2014, he said.
He noted
that Ghana’s abysmal performance in oil revenue was due to its employment of
the Modern Concession system, which the draft Petroleum Exploration and
Production Bill currently before Parliament sought to consolidate into law.
“Ghana’s
adoption of the Modern Concession system would make it difficult for her
to derive the full maximum benefits from the oil and gas resources if the bill
is passed into law.
“We
believe the introduction and application of pure Production Sharing Agreement
would be in the best national interest,” he said, adding that the PSA would
have earned the country between US$5 billion and US$6 billion by September 30,
2014.
Mr
Kwawukume said the Modern Concession system was subject to undue influences and
corruption and, therefore, called on public interest lawyers to test the
sanctity of oil agreements and contracts at the Supreme Court in the interest
of the country.
Withdrawal of bill
He
appealed to President John Mahama to withdraw the bill as a matter of urgency
and invite independent international experts to review the draft bill to
reflect PSA fiscal provisions, in order to achieve maximum benefits from the
country’s oil and gas resources.
Mr
Kwawukume said all the oil and gas agreements and contracts approved by
Parliament were modelled to suit the Modern Concession laws, which were not in
the statute books when they were being signed and were, therefore,
unconstitutional.
“These
agreements and contracts are not compatible and in conformity with the tenets
of the existing laws governing the upstream oil industry. They are, therefore,
unconstitutional, illegal and ultra vires,” he stated.
The GIGS
senior research fellow called on various groupings such as the National House
of Chiefs, National Peace Council, National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), the
Association of Ghana Industries among many other bodies to impress on the
President to withdraw the bill, because its passage would amount to complete
eternal economic and modern-day slavery.
The
Executive Director of GIGS, Mr David Agbee, said the institute had presented
memoranda to Parliament on the current bill’s inadequacies and presented their
concerns on the losses in oil revenue being incurred by the country to the
government several times for a withdrawal but they had still not seen any
change.
Writer’s
email: edmund.asante@graphic.com.gh
This story was first published by the Daily Graphic on January 28, 2015
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