The Finance Ministry has released the list of approved projects being funded with the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) of Ghana’s oil revenues.
The Ministry had earlier engaged the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to provide the utilization and the cash plan of their ABFA allocations in the 2019 budget, following the recommendations of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC).
The Ministry published the breakdown in a bid to ensure transparency and accountability.
Per the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), after the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) receives its portion of oil profit, 70 percent of the remaining profit must be lodged in the ABFA.
The law also stipulates that 70 percent of the ABFA must be invested in infrastructure projects with the remaining 30 percent to be allocated to priority areas, including education.
The PIAC Secretariat had called on the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) to provide it with information on all physical infrastructural projects it intends to fund with petroleum revenue in the country in 2019.
The commission has raised concerns with what appeared to be non-existent projects in the past.
For example, PIAC has said the government in 2017 allocated GH¢2.2 million on physical infrastructure in the education sector, but not a single project was constructed
It plans to collaborate with the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) as well as the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate non-existent oil-funded projects in the country which budgets were approved for.
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By: citinewsroom.com | Ghana
