Foreign companies retention of 100% earnings is wake-up call
The Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) says the revelation that foreign mining companies retain close to 100 per cent of their earnings should be a wake-up call to restore sanity in Ghana’s mining industry.
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Prince William Ankrah, General Secretary of the union, said, “If today parliamentarians are hearing that mining firms repatriate 80 per cent of mining receipts, then it should be a wake-up call to all of us and a clear signal to cabinet ministers to sit up” to determine the real impact of mining on Ghana’s socio-economic development.
At its resumed public hearings in Accra yesterday, members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament expressed shock at the situation where foreign mining companies retained an average of 80 per cent of their annual earnings in line with binding agreements passed by Parliament in 2003.
The committee headed by Mr Kweku Agyemang Manu subsequently called for an investigation into the percentage of earnings retained to establish the circumstances under which the contracts received parliamentary approval in a country desperate for foreign exchange to fund its development projects.
Reacting to the issue in an interview, Mr Ankrah said, “If the intention of the policy was to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs), we have come of age now and the time to do the right thing is now.
“Some mining companies even retain and repatriate 100 per cent of their earnings. Why should it be so?
“Botswana experienced a similar situation but took the bold step and instituted the right measures and today, they are reaping from it. We need a progressive debate on the matter because we all know what impact the current situation is having on our economy, especially on our exchange rate.”
At the GMWU’s recent National Executive Council meeting at Obuasi, Mr Ankrah lamented the extent to which the government gave mining companies a lot of capital allowances yet they did not pay the appropriate taxes on them.
He said: “They end up duping the country of revenue that it needs. Last year, around this time, Ghana had cashed in $3.2 billion from mining receipts. The figure for the same period this year is $2.2billion dollars.
“No wonder we are out there looking for Eurobonds because if you don’t do that, the country cannot run. So the GMWU leadership and the entire membership are concerned about our dear country Ghana.
“Australia has cashed in big time on mining receipts and made major in-roads with regard to job infrastructure and other related areas.
“The question we ask ourselves is what do we see here in Ghana’s mining communities? Wretched infrastructure after 100 years of mining.”
On the way forward, he said the ownership structure of mining firms should be looked at again, and added that the current 10 to 20 per cent local ownership was not good enough.
“We need to strengthen our Geological Survey Department to make it more relevant to the mining industry and be able to carry out quality and reliable research to provide the needed data and information on our mining sector,” Mr Ankrah added.
Source: GNA/Ghana
