The Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, a citizens-based group working for improved governance of the country's natural resources especially oil and gas, has cited government's dilly dallying over demands for greater transparency in oil contracts as a major factor that accounts for the government's slip in the Transparency International's global transparency rankings from a previous encouraging performance of a 4.1 points which placed Ghana at 62nd position, to a poor showing of 3.9 this year placing the country at 69th position.
The group points to the increasing attention the natural resource sector of developing economies are receiving, bolstered by the ever-growing acceptance of transparency and accountability as the hallmark of a corruption-free society, arguing that any action that suggests that a government is not acting above board in these matters will no doubt be inimical to the government's integrity standing.
The group says, even though some oil contracts have been disclosed on the government?s website, there are still some contracts that are being kept from public scrutiny, such as the AFREN and HESS Petroleum contracts, reinforcing the impression that the only motivation for putting up the Jubilee Partners' contracts was that, the incentive to keep it confidential was blown away by Kosmos Energy's sourcing of finance from the U.S. bourse and therefore having to meet disclosure requirements of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Platform's Chairman, Dr. Steve Manteaw, who is also the Campaigns Coordinator at ISODEC told Public Agenda that the CS Platform on Oil and Gas was deeply concern that, the Cirrus-Vitol marketing contract has been kept away from the public. "Several attempts by our members to secure a copy of the contract have been unsuccessful", he said, adding that, knowing the cost of marketing Ghana's crude, and how that cost is being financed is important in affirming the integrity of the revenue flow figures being provided by government.
Mr. Kwaku Darko Aferi, a Member of the Platform's Steering Committee and Head of Public Affairs at the Trades Union Congress of Ghana confirms this, and adds that the increasing attention that contract disclosure is gaining is inevitable, because what governments receive as revenues from their natural resources are always a function of the fiscal terms contained in the contracts-Opening up contracts for public scrutiny certainly takes away the incentive to negotiate bad contracts in the name of the citizenry".
The NPP Member of Parliament for Afigya- Sekyere West, and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Ghana's Parliament, Hon. Albert Kan-Dapaah told participants at a roundtable meeting on contract transparency at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) early this year, that he doesn't remember that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, while in power ever had a policy on non-disclosure of oil contracts, and that, if there was such policy, then he was unaware. Delivering his opening remarks as he chaired discussions, Hon. Kan-Dapaah told participants that he would have kicked against it if ever there was such policy on non-disclosure, explaining that, contracts are negotiated and initialed for and on behalf of the people and so there is no reason to deny the people the benefit of knowing what has been negotiated in their name.
Another reason the Platform believes accounts for the government's poor performance in the Corruption Perception Index include the delay in passing the Right to Information Bill into law. The group argues that even though the Petroleum Revenue Management Law has strong public disclosure provisions, access to contract information in Ghana is generally hampered by the absence of a Right to Information law. Bringing the bill to Parliament, according to the Right to Information Coalition, is not enough. "The government can do better with its control of the country's parliament, if it has the political will to make progress on this matter," charged Joseph Boakye, a member of the Right to Information Coalition.
Government's handling of the Kosmos Energy - GNPC dispute over an alleged breach of data proprietary rules, and the Ministry of Environment's dispute with the same company over some oil spill in the company's operational area, and the manner of their resolution, might have also fed into the general perception of corruption, according to the Oil and Gas Platform. "Given that the matter was of public interest, it was improper for the government to have kept the details of the settlement away from the public", the Platform points out, adding that, such behaviour - Provides cover for rent-seeking, and does not help in building confidence and trust in the government."
The Deputy Minister for Information, Mr. Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa has, following the release of the 2011 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), expressed dismay at the government's performance, arguing that the government deserved a better score. He cites among others, "the government's signing on to the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI)" but, Dr. Manteaw, a member of the Ghana EITI Steering Committee says this is not entirely accurate. "Ghana acceded to the EITI under the NPP administration in 2003", he observed, and added that "the NDC can of course take credit for the fact that they have continued to implement it."
The 2011 CPI scored 183 countries and territories from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (least corrupt), based on levels of perceived public sector corruption, using data from surveys that looked at factors including enforcement of anti-corruption laws, access to information, and incidence conflicts of interests.
