There has been so much ado about gold since the National Democratic Congress (NDC) assumed the reins of governance.
From the story about the heightened illegal mining activities of gold to the opaqueness underpinning the purchase and sale of the precious metal, there has not been a reduced decibel occasioned by the suspected underhandedness of officialdom.
The most discussed subject on the political plane is gold, especially as it pertains to the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).
Even before the whereabouts of the lost $1.7 billion is determined or questions surrounding the suspected bad trade occasioning the financial anomaly are answered and made public, it has turned out that there are even more issues.
The issues are about possible governance missteps about the management of the gold sales and returns.
Leading the charge about the foregone is former Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, who is also a member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Policy Coordinating Committee on Finance and Economy, but for whose questions we would not have entered into the fresh realm.
Who are the foreign gold buyers? Documents regarding the transactions must be made public. Details about financing arrangements and commercial conditions underpinning the transactions must be disclosed openly.
We would suspect shady deals when these transactions continue to be kept to the chest of a few persons associated with government. The cause of transparency would not be served if the status quo is maintained and only insults remain answers to genuine questions posed.
It is in the interest of the government and the appropriate agency to let out the relevant information about the transaction on our gold, because Ghanaians deserve to know.
Ghanaians on whose behalf the transactions are being done by government through its relevant appointees deserve to be served such answers, being principal stakeholders.
Not releasing such information would only give room to speculation about underhand dealings by a government which is already losing the confidence of the people about its ability to keep the public purse from developing punctures.
Time was it when the accumulated gold reserve courtesy of the Bawumia initiated Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, was sold and bought back under arrangement which is still shrouded in mystery under this government. That constitutes another component of the series of financial conundrums which have bedeviled this government’s management of the precious metal.
Answers to questions posed by the former Finance Minister are necessary to enable us as stakeholders to determine whether or not we were shortchanged and, above all, to establish the propriety or otherwise of the transaction.
There are too many moving parts in this subject that only answers to the appropriate questions being posed would give us clear minds.
Things do not appear to be clear at this point and would remain so when they are left in the hands of government propaganda managers to deal with.
In some jurisdictions such as the DR Congo, natural resources have triggered conflicts, while in ours it is the source of political stalemate as government refuses to make critical disclosures to enable us to draw conclusions.