Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, has asked the Ghana Manganese Company (GMC) Limited to resume operations.
This follows the shutting down of the company by government about five days ago.
A press release issued yesterday and signed by the minister stated: “After a couple of meetings between representatives of the government of Ghana, including the Ministers of Land and Natural Resources, Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, top officials from the Minerals Commission and the representatives and management of GMC on the 6th and 9th of August 2019, the parties have agreed to expedite action towards resolution of the issues raised.”
“In the light of the good faith shown by the company to work with government towards amicable resolution, including the joint manning of the weigh bridge located at the mine and tonnages loaded unto ships to guarantee accurate computation of revenue, I have asked the company to resume its operations,” the release added.
He, however, assured the public that efforts were being made to protect the interest of all employees, local contractors and the state.
A few days ago, Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh shared with the media the findings of the Technical and Financial Audit carried out on the operations of Ghana Manganese Company Limited (GMC) which necessitated the suspension of the operations of GMC until further notice.
Monday
The minister on Monday explained that the audit which relied on fair pricing model, open source data as well as verifiable business intelligence centre had shown that the state lost more than $357 million between 2010 and 2017.
“Findings have confirmed huge losses to the state. These estimated losses include additional royalty taxes due; $12.8 million, additional corporate taxes due; $79 million, loss of dividends declared; $6.1 million while additional revenue residing offshore between 2010 and 2017 with no transfer pricing conducted prior to 2017 was $259 million,” he had said.
He also disclosed that the audit discovered a manipulation of sales by Manganese Trading Limited the sole off-taker of manganese produced by GMCL which led to a stockpiling of ore prior to a downward adjustment of transfer prices from 2.4 to 0.65 per dry metric ton unit.
Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh indicated that the manipulation which contradicted Section 13 of the Mining Lease Agreement was done prior to the expiry of an alleged three year sales exclusivity agreement that was started in April 2012 by the company with its sole off-taker.
“Calculated loss due to this price/production manipulation is conservatively estimated to be $3.64 million,” he said.
BY Samuel Boadi