The Ghana Gold Board Observations

Section 2: Object of the Gold Board

Issue: there must be an issue of exploration and the gathering of geological data as part of the objectives. That is the most important thing to have Ghana secure better contracts with Multi-National Companies using the data.

Section13– Appointment of the CEO

(2) The Chief Executive Officer shall hold office on the terms and conditions specified in the letter of appointment.

Issue: the tenure of the CEO must have a maximum year he/she cannot go beyond to improve governance and prevent a lot of disputes during changes in electoral cycles.

Section 22: Borrowing powers

Issue: Section 22 subjects itself to Article 181 of the Constitution. This suggest that there will be both local and international borrowing. Is this not Agyapa? Is this not going to be same huge loans contracted at high exchange rates like Cocobod did? There must be limitations placed therein.

Section 24: Annual report and other reports

Issue: The annual report should be relooked at. The report to parliament must be done half-yearly to strengthen oversight and prevent mismanagement or misappropriation.

Section 25: Funds earmarked for small-scale miners

2 (d) facilitate the establishment of gold processing and refining facilities to promote local value addition and reduce raw mineral exports;

Issue: Since that is part of the core objectives, what percentage of funds are earmarked for it?

2 (e) promote and support initiatives that enhance quality control, certification and compliance of gold mining products with international market standards;

Issue: What international market standards are you going to use? Again the Small scale miners are not exporting gold anymore, so why allocate funds for that? Or in the future the small scale miners may export on their own?

Section 25:Funds earmarked for small-scale miners

(3): The Gold Board shall, in consultation with small-scale miners, issue guidelines to govern the use, allocation and disbursement of the earmarked funds.

(4) The guidelines referred to in subsection (3) shall be published in the Gazette.

Issue: Is the Gold Board disbursing and allocating before gazetting or it’s the other way round?

Section 42: Report by Gold Board

Issue: Include in the Act a copy of the quarterly report to parliament.

Section 48:Other powers of the Gold Board

Without limiting section 47, where a person contravenes a provision of this Act or Regulations made under this Act, the Gold Board may (b) order the forfeiture of gold obtained illegally;

Issue:To forfeit without a Court involvement will breed arbitrariness and sin against the right to own property under Article 18.

Section 54: Appeal against the decision of the Dispute Resolution Committee &

Section 62:Appeal against a decision of the Tribunal

Issue: The two-step process of adjudication lengthens the course of an aggrieved person seeking remedies through a court system. Only one dispute mechanism required for appropriate checks and balances.

Section 63: General offences and penalties

(1) A person shall not

(c)- transport or trade in gold or gold mining products without a licence or proper authorization.

Issue: What does proper authorization mean? It must be defined

Section 75:Interpretation

Ghanaian” means (a) (b) a citizen of Ghana

Issue: Any citizen of any age? It must be qualified with age.

Section 79: Transitional provisions

(4) An export licence for the exportation of gold issued by the Minister responsible

for Mines shall, upon the coming into force of this Act, cease to be valid.

Issue: Outright revocation of the licence validly granted by the Minister in the past government cannot just be taken away by an act. It opens the door for law suits as it occasions grave injustice. Even Article 11(6) calls for modifications on a Constitutional level, how much more a right? Even Article 107 (b) guards against that.

General Comment

Where is the medium scale mining categorization and why are they not envisaged by this Act? If the Amendments are made to the Minerals and Mining Act, there’ll be a great lacuna as to whether the content of this Act applies to the Medium Scale Miners or not.