Residents express concern about operations of mining companies

Obuasi, Oct. 09, GNA -- Residents of mining communities within Obuasi Municipality and Amansie Central District of Ashanti have expressed concern about the manner operations of mining companies were impacting negatively on their socio-economic development. The communities are Binsere, Dokyiwa, Ahansoyewodea, Aketechieso, Amamom, Hia, Ewiase and Anankyerem.

They expressed the concern at a day's sensitisation workshop on Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) for 50 residents drawn from the communities at Obuasi.

It was organised by Civil Society Coalition on EITI, Ghana. EITI was initiated by British Prime Minister, Tony Blair at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002 to respond to the belief that people in most natural resource dependent countries were not benefiting from the extractive sector because of perceived corruption and mismanagement of revenue from the sector.

Mr Alhassan Adam, member of Civil Society Coalition on EITI, Ghana said the initiative would assist Government and mining communities to know the volume of gold and other minerals extracted from a particular mine at a given period.

He said when these groups were aware of the volume of production as well as the cost of production that they could assess the quantum of royalties to be paid by the mining companies.

Mr Adam said EITI would in addition, demand accountability from the Government, assemblies and chiefs about how the royalties derived from the mining companies were utilised.

He said most of the mining companies were evading the payment of some taxes such as ground rent and corporate tax and called on EITI to come out with recommendations that would assist the Government to collect more revenue from mining operations.

Mr Richard Kojo Ellimah, Obuasi Co-ordinator for Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), noted that it was time mining communities really benefited from the natural resources that were extracted from their areas.

He said auditing of operations of mining companies to know how much they produced, the cost of production and the profit generated was important since the nation and the mining communities had been cheated for far too long.

Mr Ellimah appealed to residents in mining communities to remain united and fight for their rights but cautioned against the use of violent confrontations. 09 Oct. 06