The Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Dr Steve Manteaw, has added his voice to the many calling for an investigation into the IMCIM ‘galamsey’ report authored by Prof Frimpong-Boateng.
According to him, the content of the report is not the whole truth and the reason there hasn’t been any official action is the individuals implicated in the report.
He made this known on Joy News’ NewsFile and monitored by GhanaWeb.
To, Dr Manteaw, the report has rather exposed the false pretence by the government in the supposed fight against illegal mining in the country over the years.
“The report is revealing but not surprising. In fact, it has exposed the false pretences that have characterized our supposed fight against this galamsey in this country. But for me, we’ve known this all this while and this comes only to confirm what is already public knowledge” he said.
Dr Steve Manteaw, further added that, although the IMCIM report was not meant for public consumption, the rightful authority has not done anything about it since 2021.
“I do not think that the report was meant for public consumption. This is a report that was actually requested by the rightful authority. It was put together in 2021 and submitted to the authority”.
“So, the question should be, what has that authority that actually commissioned the report done with the content of the report? Because was for we the public, all we care to know is what the government is doing, what actions the government is taking to curb this illicit activity,” he added.
Having received the report since 2021, Dr Steve Manteaw bemoans the government’s inaction to deal with the contents of the report until it got into the public.
“And so, if following the receipt of the report, the president has taken specific actions, that is what we the public wants to know and it's most disappointing that we do not know of any action the president has taken except this recent direction that the report should be investigated by the police,” he said.
He, thus calls for a by-partisan interest approach to help in the fight against the menace.
Background:
The then chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Professor Frimpong Boateng released a report he authored in 2021, citing some NPP bigwigs as bringing hindrances to the fight against illegal mining.
Since then, the cited names have come out to refute the claims of the report.
Some of the names include; Gabby Otchere Darko, Charles Bissew, Oppong Nkrumah, Lord Commey among others.
NW/BB
Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Dr Steve Mantea