Government has no defense in breach of Petroleum Act – PIAC

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has insisted government’s expenditure pattern of the petroleum revenue is still in contravention with Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) 2011 (Act 815).

“You can dispute the figures as provided, but there is no way government can justify that it has not breached the law.” the Chairman of PIAC, Dr Emmanuel Stephen Manteaw, told host Kwaku Owusu Adjei on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM.

Government in a Press Statement has said PIAC’s argument on the ABFA is not aligned with the provisions of the law.

This comes after PIAC’s 2017 Annual Report presented at a public forum in Takoradi on Monday.

But Dr. Manteaw argued per the data received from the Ministry of Finance, government’s heavy expenditure on recurrent expenditure is critically inconsistent with the provisions of the Act (PRMA) 2011 (Act 815).

“If only they agree that per the provisions of the law, the government is required to spend a minimum of the ABFA on public investment expenditure, then when you look at the expenditure for 2017, which hovers around $300 million out of which $202 million was spent on School fees and Feeding alone. This represents more than 60% of the total amount just on recurrent expenditure” he explained.

Meanwhile, Section 21(4) of the PRMA states that “For any financial year a minimum of 70% of the ABFA shall be used for public investment expenditures consistent with the long term National Development Plan”

PIAC contends that in 2017, the expenditure, as reported by the Ministry of Finance, did not conform to the requirement to spend at least 70 per cent of the ABFA on capital expenditure.

“What has happened is a complete disregard for the law and the Ministry of Finance must, therefore, comply with the provisions of Section 21(4) of Act 815 in respect of public investment expenditure,” he said.