Revenue Mobilization and Transparency in Ghana’s Upstream Oil Industry.

With the onset of an oil boom in Ghana, there have been major concerns as to how our motherland can manage its oil and gas revenue internally. The Jubilee Field alone is expected to furnish the foreign exchange account of the country with up to 1 billion dollars in revenue per annum. Other discoveries, even though have not yet been fully evaluated will also contribute significant amount of cash into the pocket of the government of Ghana. These discoveries include the Odum, Hyedua, Tweneboah, and the 53rd Birthday present, the wild Dzata discovery. However, Ghanaians have been overwhelmed with the joy associated with the discoveries that it appears we have forgotten that the country of about 21 million people can be shafted by unconventional practices of Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (E&P) Companies operating in the country’s offshore basins. This notwithstanding, this aspect of oil policy formulation has not received much talk and debate, which I consider very pernicious for the mobilisation of oil revenue in particular and national development in general. Transparency International (TI)’s 2008 report on Transparency of Oil and Gas Companies studies into detail the unacceptable financial practices of E&P giants. This report was written to promote revenue transparency and combat the “paradox of plenty”. In this report, TI evaluates 42 leading oil and gas companies on their current policies, management systems and performance in areas relevant to revenue transparency in their upstream operations. The key finding of the research is that most companies evaluated do not sufficiently report on their payments to governments where they operate. According to TI’s 2008 Report on Revenue Transparency of Oil And Gas Companies, two thirds of oil companies evaluated during the survey fall into the middle or low performance category. Effects of “Financial Opacity” in Upstream Operations

Oil and gas resources generate great wealth, but if poorly managed extractive revenues can also undermine economic growth, create incentives for rent-seeking (interested parties trying to persuade the government and/or private sector to apply policies favouring their private financial good rather than the public good) activity, heighten corruption in the public and private sectors, and may even fuel conflicts. Generally, financial opacity renders a poor reputation to E&P companies and can result in lost of investment capital. In host countries, government in power are rendered unpopular. In the socio-economic sense it makes the poor poorer and enriches a few who will be at the forefront crude oil business. This phenomenon also promotes the smuggling of crude oil and its related products. It is estimated that in Nigeria alone, over 1 billion worth of crude oil is smuggled out of the country annually. Financial opacity encourages and fuels conflicts in oil producing areas, which is characterised by the abduction oil company workers, slaughter of indigenous people and the flaming of the impoverished properties of native people. The incidences in oil rich Delta state of Nigeria is a practical example of the effects of financial opacity. The effect of Financial Opacity is multifaceted and touches on investors, governments and even the unborn baby in the womb of the poorest mother. Solutions

According to TI’s 2008 report on revenue transparency of oil and gas companies, two thirds of oil companies evaluated during the survey fall into the middle or low performance category. The home countries of oil and gas exploration companies are expected to help ensure financial transparency of these companies. This they can do by ensuring that oil and gas companies comply with uniform global reporting standards and report on financial transparency issues on a country by country basis. Good governance on the part of host government is said to be the catholicon to financial opacity. Strengthening the accountability of decision makers that control the oil and gas resources and revenue is the ultimate means through which government can monitor these E&P companies. We should bear in mind also that oil exploration agreements are woven in a nest of confidentiality clauses, thereby constituting it a criminal offense to reveal certain financial information into the public domain. Companies can hide under such clauses to dupe the country resulting low financial returns to host governments, in this case the government of Ghana. This we can avoid by limiting the quantum of confidentiality clauses that appear in petroleum agreements. Civil society groups play a crucial role in oil revenue transparency. Their role starts from the formulation of the exploration agreements through the enactment of production agreement to the most important of them all, keeping vigil that these complex legal, managerial and procedural agreements and heeded to. Civil society organisations are also expected to work hand in hand with the Ghana government through the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to educate the general public on revenue mobilization and use. However GNPC should be commended for the task it has taken upon itself to educate the general public on the Ghana Oil Policy and Revenue Utilization. Every Ghanaian has an imitable role to play; study concerning the oil and gas industry and keep our eyes open in all matters relating to oil exploration and production in Ghana. Conclusion

The fact of the matter is that, Ghana stands to loose several millions of dollars of foreign exchange if the activity of oil companies are not properly monitored by the state and the various stakeholders. Policy makers, at least, for now should be commended to the daunting job they have done to project Ghana to an enviable forefront of commercial hydrocarbon production. However the blessing has also appeared with its own associated problems—an anticipated ‘resource curse’. Ghana needs to take a bold step to translated possible ‘resource curse’ into blessing. She has decided to pass an oil policy which is now at the floor of parliament for debate and acceptance. She has also equipped various institutions like GNPC to meet the anticipated challenges in the upstream sector of the Oil Industry head on. Let us pray that all these institutional interventions and frameworks will work for our good, but not to fill the panoptic mouth of greedy government officials. However every Ghanaian has a role to play in ensuring that his motherland gets the revenue she deserves from her natural oil and gas resource. God continue to bless Ghana and may we have more discoveries, with each successive one greater than the preceding one.

Eugene Sam-Okyere Department of Geological Engineering KNUST, Kumasi [Email: ugsam2000@yahoo.co.uk]