Benjamin Boakye
@benboakye
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Executive Director. Africa Centre for Energy Policy
Ghana
Joined June 2011
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The conclusion that SML contract is “redundant” yet “beneficial” is incongruous. We showed through careful analysis of government’s rscords that NPA data was superior to GRA data used for Revneue assurance. Therefore, there's no Revneue jump attributable to SML
@BBSimons
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I understand that lawyers of my friend,
@bbsimons
, were told today that Fidelity has filed a libel lawsuit over his tweet about ECG buying forex at 13.95. We wait for service.
For those of us fighting to prevent Dumsor caused by financial mismanagement, this opens a new WARFRONT.
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3 weeks ago CSOs were pumped about an illicit sale of GNPC’s assets to PetroSA. It turns out that PetroSA was being bankrolled by a local company for the acquisition. Btw, nothing would happen since the alarm & calls 4 accountability. We've moved on to a new scandal, TOR.
#IMF
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1/The Ministry of Energy signed a sole-sourced relocation and operation contract to move the Ameri Power Plant to Kumasi for $71m, which PPA approved. When we exposed it, the ministry said there was no contract.
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KPMG has its integrity at stake if it accepts this job. It is a client of GRA and its investigation against the leaders of one of its LARGE portfolios is exceedingly suspicious. Simply unethical.
1/
For the record, the key civil society activists probing this SML contract reject the President's decision to ask KPMG to do a RUSHED review of Ghana's decision to hire a timber merchant at a fee that could top a $billion over time in the name of auditing commodity exports.
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1. Wow! I haven't heard you make a scintilla technical argument about Agyapa, the entire machinery that sought to sell 49% of our gold royalties, from producising and pipeline projects, have evaded technical debate on the matter. The channel is still open if you have capacity.
Since the full judgment of the ECOWAS Court became public, I have read posts from certain persons that led the charge in misleading people about the Agyapa Transaction because of their basic lack of understanding of the transaction. These so-called experts chose not to go to
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It appears you can only be a Commissioner General of the very demanding GRA job after pension 🤦🏾♂️
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Are there filters in the newsroom these days? Can we see independent analysis from other media houses on this SML Thing? Or should we treat these as adverts?
@Citi973
@asaaseradio995
@TheGhanaWeb
@BBSimons
@Manasseh_Azure
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Accountability campaigns are not hate campaigns; keep your side of the truth and convince the public for them to make a judgement. If you can’t do that but focus on motives, you are protecting your lies.
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Fighting for public interest is getting very difficult, particularly with Fidelity and SML jumping in with deep pockets:
@Manasseh_Azure
and
@BBSimons
being the latest casualties. It promises to be daunting and independent minds must step in to match the fight.
1/
Since the Fidelity Bank lawsuit in the wake of our attempts to hold ECG to account, many people have reached out offering donations for my legal costs. How generous! But
@benboakye
& others have an even more powerful idea: a Public Interest Litigation Fund!
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When you read the $170m judgement debt on GPGC, you'll understand how people sleep on the Job to engineer financial haemorrhage. The Value of the contract was ~$134m if it worked, without discounting for my economic benefit. We don't know the accrued interest yet.
@BBSimons
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MiDA was a significant part of the problem; Ghana had to lose so much when it decided to subsume operational decisions under overt and covert political manipulation. $192m is the tip of the iceberg. The totality of our loss is what we see in the power sector today; a
#mess
PDS scandal: US shuts down $190m compact with ‘no immediate plans to work in Ghana again’
#JoyNews
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I joined
#DumsorMustStop
cos I was confident I’d return home. A dangerous society is where you are either afraid or a patron of the system.
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1. It's not every CSO against Agyapa that was in court.
2. The court would not know that the same lawyers that cooked the MIIF Act were the lawyers behind Agyapa.
3. Parliament that passed the MIIF act could not anticipate the trickery in the eventual sale of 49% of royalty
I wonder why Transparency International, Ghana Integrity Initiative and the CSOs who went to an international court over Agyapa have been quiet since July after their case was dismissed on all fronts. But, I thank them for that move. It is good for our democracy. And, I will urge
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It’ll be interesting to understand the technical investment into such decision by PPA. Did they know that production is monitored by Petrocom/GNPC with meters calibrated by Standards authority?what proprietary tech. will count gold bars?
@BBSimons
@Manasseh_Azure
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So
#ECG
says its revenue sharing data for October 2023, reported two months after expenditure was projections? If ECG says it procured the FX at ~11.8, not 13.95, to the cedis, then the money we are looking for is more than GHS90m for only October.
#Ghanacrimes
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Fidelity opted for the spotlight rather than helping the public find GHS100m lost through exchange rate manipulation at ECG, arguably their biggest client today, in one month. Private business should help the public business as well.
Since it is Twitter (X) that landed me in the lawsuit, it is only fair to inform the Twitter crowd that the issues are now fully joined with Fidelity Bank. Public accountability work is a marathon not a sprint. So, let's take it slowly. 🙏🏽
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The open book accounting that has eluded the people- including the President - for years never got easier.
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Ok, here is the response of the senior staff of TOR, who never responded to direct accusations of product theft, contributing to the company's losses. How did they conclude Torentco is the best option?
@BBSimons
@Manasseh_Azure
@norvan986
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1/ Details are emerging that KPMG extended its investigation to contracts awarded by NPA for activities similar (in every sense, if not worse) to SML’s. The lawyers of NPA say no. Hopefully, collateral damage benefits the people
@BBSimons
@Manasseh_Azure
#MorrowNoFar
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In an analysis to show that ECG is doing better,
#KPMG
asserts that revenue grew 34%- from Jan- May 2023. This ignores that the tariff was increased by 66% to account for the exchange rate and other variables in the period. My Colleague says that’s a trumped-up analysis from KPMG
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“If the problem is governance, the solutions cannot be financial or economic”… Prof. Bokpin. Me: the crux of the matter.
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But ECG must keep all of them working, true or false? You collect the revenue, and when you fail to account for the revenue collected and collect far less than you should, the entire value chain suffers. That's why there's no fuel and the picture you should paint, honestly.
How ECG gets power and distributes it.
Electricity goes through multiple steps and players before reaching your homes or offices. It is important to understand that ECG does not generate electricity, ECG simply re-distributes.
#ECG
#GridtoHome
#GRIDCo
#VRA
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Take your tier two and three seriously. SSNIT is a state sponsored Ponzi scheme, with only a promise. We are only compelled, by law, to pay more.
@BBSimons
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@thebankofghana
's Exchange rate in October 2023 was less than GHS11.5 to the $ and commercial Banks ~GHS12. ECG was buying the $
@GHS13
.95, creating exchange losses above GHS80 million in one month for buying $43m. we will trend exchange losses for a year and report.
@BBSimons
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IPPs in Ghana did not shut down as threatened- good news. But, the gas transmission from the west to the east was shut down at 05hrs this morning for a debt owed to WAPCO. WAPCO expected ~$15m, and GNPC could pay ~$1m. Political LCO merchants are smiling to the bank.
@BBSimons
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You are exceedingly generous with the number of pages. In fact the relevant pages are 5. $100m to $1.3b in three years, look no further to understand a jackpot.
Ghana's Min of Energy has sent a strange request to Parliament to borrow $1.65B to invest in fields operated by Norway's Aker & AGM. The shockingly hollow 10-page memo contains none of the technical info lawmakers need to understand why Ghana should bear this risk at this time.
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One statement that got me into trouble with the political class in 2021 was to warn that it was not sustainable for the government to pay electricity bills and pretend all was ok.
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How much is GHS 1.06 billion in $s? Generating the discount factor for the past 5 years is some work. Also what other business(s) will give you GHS 1.06 billion in 5yrs with $44m investment.
#IMFOurHome
@BBSimons
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@BBSimons
He's unfit to lead the people if he can't appreciate what they want or detests how they think.
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Ei! Do we have to debate this too? Does the contract talk about net liability for the service? It was extraneous for KPMG to do net calculations. Tax responsibility on businesses and people is exactly what it is, unless exempt. I’ll share how SML discounts the GHS 1b for tax.
The assertion that the KPMG report indicates SML was paid GHS 1.4 billion is misleading. This claim has been circulated in news stories on
@JoyFmNews
,
@Joy997FM
, and
@JoyNewsOnTV
, as well as by my own friends,
@Manasseh_Azure
and
@BBSimons
.
Upon careful review, one will notice
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Are there fears of contradictions between the report and the white paper? There must be something extra in the report only for the eyes of the president
#GhMatters
Someone at KPMG needs to print that report and conveniently leave it somewhere, anywhere. This is a matter of national interest.
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Are we anywhere close to knowing why the KPMG report would not be released until now?
@lordcudjoe
@BBSimons
🤦🏾♂️
#ESLA
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We are defenders of public interest. But in our line of duty, we’re often called upon to challenge professorial insights. Last check, one professor attacked us for not agreeing to a $1.65b deal. It was later sold for $1! Total replay, but now a flock of professors🤦🏾♂️
#SaveYaSef
Still on the SML saga.
It is normal for professors to be confused. But that shouldn't end up confusing policy decisions and the citizens on top. 🙏🏽
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Summary of today's event: When governmence is poor, more money is not a solution.
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2. You sit on the board of MIIF, technically a beneficiary of Agyapa. Take off that hat for a sec and explain to your readers what you wanted to achieve with the transaction. It's not enough to say you mean well. Anybody can say that - a very elusive approach.
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Are there no finance experts around the speech writers?🤦🏾♂️
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1/The thinking that private sector participation in the power sector will compromise national security is a higher level of “state enchantment” to keep the sector politically managed and the poor subsidising the affluence of political appointees.
@BBSimons
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Few pages but a lot to think about. Telling the baby to clean himself, in essence. This conclusion did not require the expenditure of one cedi of public funds to investigate.
1/
According to Ghana's Prez,
KPMG says:
A. SML has been paid 1 billion cedis for claiming to stop fraud in petrol distribution in Ghana
B. It wants to be paid 5 billion GHS to monitor minerals & oil prod in Ghana
C. The contracts were given without proper approvals
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It’s Friday, and I’ve been unable to check on 3 significant things I noted in Gh: RFP for TOR was published last week with a 3-day window for investors, NPA Execs cooking a fund to pay drivers of privately owned trucks and KPMG report on SML. Pls, spare us next week
@BBSimons
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Oh yes. The public donates the levies to politicians at the Ministry of energy. Street lights purchased on the market work; the government’s street lights last only a few months just to keep the sole-sourced procurement pipeline active 🤦🏾♂️
1. Ghanaians are mobilising for various donation drives to fix perennially broken street lights across major cities.
2. ACEP too has been shouting itself hoarse demanding accountability for streetlight levies paid by citizens & the various procurement gigs. People no hear. 😉
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3/Interestingly, The PPA wrote back to say the information was exempt from disclosure.
Now, VRA has relocated the plant using its engineers, with support from Manning Group. It’ll still be relevant to know how much was spent on the relocation, particularly that;
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2/ We requested information under the RTI from the PPA on the justification for the sole-sourced contract. The PAA wrote to us to pay 1000 cedis for the info. We challenged the payment of 1000 cedis because we thought it was inconsistent with the RTI and the Fees and Charges Act.
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I’m frozen!
#KPMG
deliberated with the president on the audit?
Even when we did not have the Right to Information Law, President John Mahama released a white paper and released the full GYEEDA Report as well. The Akufo-Addo-led opposition NPP was the loudest in asking president Mahama to release that report,
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71% of Ghana’s GDP comes from the formal sector, according to GSS. A significant effort at revenue mobilisation targets the informal sector with PR overload on “expanding the tax net”. Is it not the case that the existing tax net is leaky?
E-levy 2.0 is still not a solution.
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According to
#VRA
Senior Staff, VRA billed ECG ~GHS 1 billion. CWM recommended payment of 32%. But ECG could only pay 13%, creating a ~GHS 890m debt between August 2023 and March 2024.
#DebtFactory
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Fighting IFF and money laundering never got this difficult. Just say it belongs to the dead when caught and leave the police to invoke the spirits 🤦🏾♂️.
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1/You signed an International agreement with your eyes open and chose an international forum for dispute resolution. Then when the dispute arises, you reference your muscles to override the existence of the chosen forum, endorsed by local court.
@BBSimons
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The church fails to recognise that to the politician and their business fronts, it is a constituency with numbers, not God.
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4/1. We were told VRA engineers were not capable of managing the plant
2. It would have cost us $71M if Mytilineos had proceeded with the relocation and management contract.
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@BBSimons
Who art thou to speak against the direction of your father 😂. Perfect mood for aggrieved sons and daughters
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Corruption is the factory inequality
#PAC
#FightCorruption
Civil society and other key individuals are making a pledge. Will you?
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There’s no single fraudulent deal in the energy sector that has gone through parliament without his blessing. CSOs and the youth are his punching bag for intervening in some of the terrible deals he supported. Now, he turns it on his leaders. Who's left?
Parliamentary proceedings: Watch K.T. Hammond throw hands at Majority Chief Whip Frank Annoh-Dompreh.
#JoyNews
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Gold prospecting can be intense and deeply graphic in Ghana. And the regulator only writes to remind the prospecting companies of their sin.
#ComplicityRedefined
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Our report couldn't be better summarised! Why there is deep poverty in Ghana can be explained by Many of these deals & the behaviour of the “dealers” in protecting the public purse. I've seen many terrible things go through Parliament- that report competes with Agyapa
@BBSimons
THE 5 FATTEST LIES OF ATTA AKYEA’s GENSER REPORT
A 🧵:
Two renowned think tanks in Ghana, IMANI (
@ImaniAfr
) and ACEP (
@AcepPower
),launched an investigation in September 2022 into why valuable natural gas owned by Ghana was being sold donkomi by GNPC to a company called Genser.
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With the amount of data available to KPMG we are keen to see how much analytical power went into the exercise.
If
@KPMG
allows itself to be used in a whitewashing machine for projects that lose Ghana billions, whilst the country is borrowing billions from the
@WorldBank
&
@IMFNews
, investors are being shafted, & some banks are on the brink, its reputation won't be spared.
#LeakTheReport
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The Ministry of energy now speaks for Genser; what a country! Ghana Gas signs a calls options agreement with a private company without ministerial approval but requires Ministerial approval to exercise their right under the contract.
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Sifting the data from rhetoric. The hard truths cannot tarry in the face of economic adversity.
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4. You were selling 49% of gold royalties forever, valued at $500m.
5. Since the aborted efforts, Ghana has made more than $500m for the share you were selling forever.
6. There ars about 5 pipeline projects that would’ve been part of the transaction to benefit the investors.
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ChatGPT tells us about the governance challenges in Ghana’s oil industry. Does the robot know us well enough? I think so!
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Horizontal power dynamic; otherwise how?
After ECG, Ghana's state owned electricity utility, snubbed auditors appointed to collect critical data about ECG's operations, the powerful regulator, PURC, has stepped in. PURC says ECG must produce all the data, allow access to bank statements, & publish a dumsor timetable.
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Ghana’s new policy position is to award all available Oil Blocks through direct negotiation. Sad day!
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3. I can pay for a live tv for you to tell Ghana at least how you understand the transaction-real questions.
4. It'll be helpful to compare your purpose with current context after the people pushed against it. You value the royalties @ $1b forever. Ghana made over $1b in 3yrs
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And the “Jujufication” of the masses 🤦🏾♂️
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Exciting times ahead as Aker and AGM now prefer to be treated as distinct entities. It is curious, though, when AGM realised that developing the Nyankom discovery would be challenging when they wanted to sell same to GNPC only 18 months ago and could value the asset at $700m.
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5. This post show that you either didn't read any technical analysis put out by CSOs or you feigned ignorance of counter arguments to advance benefits other than the interest of the state. The best you do is to expose the intellectual flaws in our arguments. None so far- sad.
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Going through my archives, I find the headline of The Economist a perfect summary of the demands of CSOs in August 2021. Fast forward, Aker gets a $1 upfront payment for the asset they wanted $1.3 billion upfront from Ghana.
@BBSimons
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Your haircut will not be the same in 2024. Meanwhile, only a few honest ones Will pay their bill, and ECG will discretionary abuse whatever is collected.
@BBSimons
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Numbers don't lie. So, we spent time doing the needful
@BBSimons
@lordcudjoe
While politically sensitive, the GRA-SML deal, which could be characterized as the final scandalous exposé of 2023, is technically straightforward.
#ACEP
&
@ImaniAfr
offer a brief note to refocus discussions on the essentials.
More:
#The3BillionCedisLie
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@BBSimons
breaks down the issues in the GRA revenue assurance contract- a gig or protection of public interest?
For those of you looking for a status update on the SML affair, whereby Ghana has hired a timber merchant to fix tax fraud for a billion-dollar fee, here goes. We also reiterate our caution to KPMG to be very careful about the reputational pitfalls.
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To make it more graphic and simpler, we compared SML claims with consumption data from GRA and NPA. while GRA and NPA data showed similarities SML data was completely off and useless.
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My Kenyan friends, I'm not the one who awarded your President the Star of the Volta. Neither are you the ones to decide who merits it. 😂
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Chess game! We need the report: We also deserve to see the report.
We have the first glimpse of evidence that what the President of Ghana said KPMG said about SML's work is not fully accurate. SML has seen the KPMG report. Citizens have not. Here is SML defending itself against some KPMG findings the President didn't disclose.
#ReleaseTheReport
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There are fiscal-cum-debt crises in many countries across the Global South. Calls for debt relief are growing, but is there a right or wrong way of doing debt relief? Join the experts in DC or online to explore the subject.
@BBSimons
@lordcudjoe
@OpenSociety
@FordFoundation
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@CallmeAlfredo
@BBSimons
We are still looking for the cited BoG account. All revenues are paid to GRA Except Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy which goes to BoG. But we have to dismantle the issues slowly, so we don’t miss any or fail to get people to understand.
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Fighting inequality require strong allies, and change of heart by those who benefit from the injustices.Working with the
@FordFoundation
enables change actors to converge on important actions to shape resource governance for a shared prosperity.The CSO ecosystem is grateful.
Natural resource extraction has exacerbated
#inequality
and the climate crisis.
@benboakye
is making Black history as a
#CivilSociety
leader helping steer West Africa toward a sustainable and equitable future. We are proud to support his work at
@AcepPower
.
#BlackHistoryMonth
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@BBSimons
The GHS13.95 used by ECG for actual accounting for October 2023, not projections. The numbers were reconciled in December before the CWM committee, and ECG insisted on that rate. We need proper answers on where that money is, not threats.
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In response to an RTI request, the Attorney General was categorical that his opinion has not been sought on the EPC contract to relocate the Ameri Plant. This contradicts the Minister of Energy’s Statement before Parliament, that the attorney general gave an opinion.
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2/
#KPMG
itself would not respond to RTI request of The Fourth Estate on its contract with the government. KPMG should remember that the RTI Law covers its dealings with the Government.
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7. The pipeline project will generate about $200m annually. It would have been shared with the investors.
8. You committed to locking the royalty regime at 5%, selling the sovereignty of Ghana to regulate its fiscal take in future,
9. CSOs doubt that these risks were not known.
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