REVIEW MINERALS AND MINING ACT (P.16)

Story: Kofi Yeboah
AN aspirant for the flag bearer position of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Bright Akwetey, has described the Minerals and Mining Act (2006) as bogus and obnoxious because it allows foreigners to “gang rape” the nation.
He, therefore, called on the government to, with immediate effect, stop issuing out licences to foreign companies for mining concessions until the law was reviewed in the interest of the nation.
“That law is detrimental to the interest of this country and a serious indictment on the conscience of Ghanaian politicians,” he said, declaring that as a politician, he would extricate himself from such an indictment.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic on Tuesday, Mr Akwetey, who is also a private legal practitioner, made copious references to the law to buttress his argument that it was a bogus and obnoxious law and threw a challenge to anyone who might wish to engage him in a public debate on the issue.
According to him, there was no basis for the 10 per cent shares given to the country from the mining of minerals, while the foreign companies took away 90 per cent of the profit.
Apart from that, he said, the mining companies had been given a lot of concessions, such as the non-payment of tax for five years, the non-payment of duties on the equipment they brought into the country for their operations and a right to transfer all profits made outside.
Mr Akwetey further indicated that the mining companies were given capital gains that allowed them to amortise whatever loans they used to buy their equipment within three years.
“You have to consider that one too. If I don’t tax you for five years but within three years you can dig gold and pay for all the equipment and money you brought in, then why don’t you have a little social conscience to stay after the fifth year and pay tax so that we also benefit? But before then, they sell the company and leave the country,” he pointed out.
He said in spite of the fact that some social sectors of the country might not be making much profit, there was the need to keep them running because they offered employment to a large number of people.
“If you sell everything and the people are unemployed, as it is now, then you are creating strong regiments of criminals and crime gangs because the idle mind is a veritable engine room for the devil to operate,” he indicated.
Mr Akwetey said one of his cardinal objectives was to protect the national purse, which was at the moment being attacked from all angles, in order to protect the nation’s interest and security.
He cited many companies in developed countries which were protected by their governments for the sake of national interest.
Mr Akwetey said the current law which replaced the Minerals and Mining Law (1986) was a detraction from the earlier one, adding that the new law had provisions that were detrimental to the interest of Ghana and Ghanaians.
He made reference to Section 17, which provides that subject to obtaining the requisite approval on licences under the Water Resources Commission Act, a holder of a mineral right may, for purposes of, or ancillary to the mineral operations, obtain, divert, impound, convey and use water from a river, stream, underground reservoir of water course within the land.
Mr Akwetey said that provision was not reasonable because it deprived the community around the mineral concession area of its source of water and livelihood and pointed out that the mineral companies should be made to construct their own boreholes for use in their operations.
“The moment you become a miner of gold in this country, you are above every law. No law catches you .... This law must be amended,” he said.
Mr Akwetey stressed the need to train students at the tertiary level to come and take over the management of the nation’s mineral resources, instead of leaving them in the hands of foreigners.
He said giving 90 per cent of our natural resources to foreigners meant that the nation had surrendered its sovereignty, contrary to the United Nations declaration that enjoined countries to have absolute sovereignty over their natural resources.