Petroleum revenue: 80% of recommendations made need to be worked on – PIAC

Challenges identified in PIAC reports keep recurring, Defor

PIAC reports indict Ministry of Finance for misapplying petroleum funds

Parliament must do better, PIAC

Chairman of the Public Affairs and Communications Sub-Committee of PIAC, Eric Defor, has noted that so far only 50% of recommendations made by PIAC in its latest report has been acted upon.

He observed that most of the challenges noted have been recurring, an indication that the recommendations have not been put into work.

“Some of them keep recurring. So, we will hope that the media will help us in our advocacy to get parliament who is empowered to take actions on the recommendation we made to be up and doing to ensure that we can cure some of these infractions in the utilization and management of the resources.

“I will say that we expect them [Parliament] to do better. If at this time, we are only 50% down the line in the implementation of recommendations, we will be happier if they do 80%. So, it means there is still a lot of work to be done by parliament”, Mr. Defor stressed.

The Public Interest and Accountability (PIAC) in its Annual and Semi-Annual reports of management and utilization of petroleum funds indicated that the Ministry of Finance was misapplying petroleum funds.

In its 2021 Annual Report, it recommended that the Ministry of Finance provides a thorough breakdown of disbursements to the District Assembly Common Fund and PIAC.

It also wanted the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with relevant institutions to come up with appropriate guidelines on the utilization and reporting of ABFA disbursed to the DACF.

PIAC also observed that four of the 18 subsisting Petroleum Agreements have been closed by the Petroleum Commission in 2021 due to the non-performance of their minimum work obligations.