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Participants at a consultative forum held in Bolgatanga on Wednesday called on Government to institute a Mineral Revenue Management law to ensure accountability, transparency and equitable distribution of resources. The forum, which was organised by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, IBIS Ghana and facilitated by Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA), was aimed at seeking inputs and advising on policy framework and legislation to be passed to regulate the management of revenue accrued from mineral resources such as gold and bauxite. The participants, who were drawn from the Civil Society Organizations, the Mineral Commission, Community members, the Trade Union Congress, traditional authorities, the Media and opinion leaders, argued that, just like the Oil sector that had the Petroleum Management Law, there was also the need for a Mineral Revenue Management law to ensure transparent management of minerals resources such as gold and bauxite. They pointed out that, as it stood now, Government claimed that 80 per cent of Mineral revenue made by Mining Companies was paid into the Consolidated Fund, which had no identity, hence does not demonstrate any transparency in the utilization of such funds. The Participants advocated for the creation of a Mineral Revenue Holding Fund and a formula for distributing mineral revenues between the Central Government and communities. The Central Government, they proposed, should use its share of revenue to set up a Sovereign Mineral Fund, which should be used for annual budget supports, stabilization of the budget and for future generations. �A condition should be included that only 60 per cent of the balance standing in the Sovereign Mineral Fund can be transferred to the Annual Budget, whilst the rest is invested and to be used in times of revenue shortfalls. In times of revenue shortfalls, the withdrawal from the Sovereign Wealth Fund should not be too much as to affect the liquidity of the Fund and fiscal sustainability�, they stressed. They stated that the community share of the revenue should be transferred to the Community Mineral Development Fund and deposits and withdrawal rules be defined, and that, any withdrawals should be subject to Parliamentary approval. The participants suggested that the Bank of Ghana should be given the mandate for the operational management of the Mineral Revenue Holding Fund and the Sovereign Mineral Fund. They also stressed that there should not be any borrowing against the Petroleum Holding Fund, the Sovereign Mineral Fund and the Community Mineral Development Fund. In furtherance, they suggested that the Community Mineral Development Fund should be managed by a Fund Manager appointed by the Bank of Ghana. Transfers of funds from the Fund would be made to beneficiaries by the Ministry of Finance in the same way as transfers to the annual Budget. They emphasised that the Central Government must be required to spend the annual budget allocation on capital infrastructure and the priority areas be limited to projects that had social and economic multiplier effect on the development of the country such as education, health, agriculture, and road and rail infrastructure. Dr Amin Anta, the Executive Secretary of Africa Centre for Energy Policy, said a lot of countries, including Botswana and Brazil spent a chunk of the revenue generated from their mineral resources on education and that had led to the greater development of those countries. He indicated that in Ghana, a lot of the decisions on mining were governed by administrative fiat- including the management of the revenue that accrue to the state, which explains why for decades of mining, it was very difficult for the country to point out the impact of mining particularly in mining communities. �Mineral revenues have been used for consumption rather than investments, Public financial management are poor as it makes it difficult to track mineral revenues and development projects funded with the revenues. Transparency in the management of mineral revenues is limited to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) process�, Dr Anta said. He expressed the optimism that if Government listened to the proposals and implemented them, it would help address some of the major challenges in the mining sector and help improve the livelihood of the people. The President of NORPRA, Mr Bismark Adongo Ayorogo, stressed that his outfit with support from other partners would continue to advocate to ensure that government adopts the proposals to bring about positive change.