Comprehensive  Ghana Oil and Gas news, information, updates, analysis


News in Brief

‘Ghana’s Oil, Gas Sector Needs Improvement’

  • SOURCE: | qwesa2big
  • A review of Ghana’s oil and gas sector by the Institute of Economic Affairs Ghana (IEA) has shown that considerable improvements are needed for transparency and accountability, with the sector receiving an overall P-TRAC Index score of 59.7 per cent in 2011.

    The P-TRAC Index is a project undertaken by IEA to promote transparency and accountability in the management of Ghana’s precious oil and gas resources. The 2011 P-TRAC Index measures transparency based on the provision of publicly available information in four key areas – Contract Transparency, Revenue Transparency, Expenditure Transparency and the management of the Heritage and Stabilisation Funds – for 2011. A score is awarded based on the fulfillment of specified criteria for each component, which is then averaged to give an overall result.

    The highest scoring component was Contract Transparency, which measures the public disclosure of information regarding the award of contracts, with a score of 66.7 per cent. The publication of Environmental Impact Assessments by the Jubilee Partners was awarded a score of 100 per cent, and other components such the establishment of the Petroleum Commission as the authority awarding contracts, the constitutional mandate of Parliament to ratify and scrutinise contracts, and the openness and competitiveness of the licensing process, also performed relatively strongly. The publication of information on licensing by the government, public disclosure of oil and gas agreements, and process for appealing a license grant application were however highlighted as areas in need of improvement.

    Revenue Transparency was awarded a score of 64.3 per cent and showed a varied result in the publication of reports. The Minister of Finance received a 100 per cent score for publication of petroleum receipts, and there was a good level of information on oil and gas reserves, prices and production values through various agencies including the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP).
    The GNPC and the MoFEP provided adequate information on the Government’s share of oil revenues, but the BoG received 0 per cent for this component. It was also found that no information in relation to production costs associated with oil and gas exploration and production was publicly available.

    Expenditure Transparency scored an average of 63.9per cent for the frequency and quality of reports regarding expenditures from the Government’s share of revenues. The review of the projects receiving funding from the oil and gas revenue and the extent of their potential developmental impacts in areas of priority was reasonably positive and scored 88.6per cent.However, the frequency of reports on expenditure by the MoEFP was judged not to meet best practice standards and received a score of only 33 per cent.

    The lowest scoring component of the Index was the management of the Heritage and Stabilisation Funds, with an average transparency score of 44 per cent. While it is pleasing to see that the constitutional requirement for the accounts of the funds to be audited are being fulfilled, the 2011 audited reports had not yet been published by the Attorney General at the time the index was compiled. The score was also negatively impacted by the lack of information on the performance of the Heritage and Stabilisation Funds, which is supposed to be published semi-annually by the BoG.

    The overall 2011 score of 59.7 per cent shows that although some progress has been made in the year under review to enhance transparency and accountability in the management of Ghana’s oil and gas resources, more needs to be done in the coming year. The P-TRAC Index Report highlights many areas for improvement in 2012.

    Source: Daily Graphic

     

    Leave a reply

    About Us
    Reporting Oil and Gas project was launched on 4th June 2009 at Takoradi, Western Region, Ghana by Penplusbytes (www.penplusbytes.org) with the vision of providing a one stop online information and knowledge about Ghana’s oil and gas sector read more
    Twitter Activity Stream
     

    Partners We are proud to be associated with:

    Skip to toolbar