Information available to the Daily Statesman indicates that the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service is probing the circumstances under which Ghana was robbed of huge sums of revenue as a result of the non-repatriation of gold export proceeds of over $2.3 billion into the country.
Information available to the Daily Statesman indicates that the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service is probing the circumstances under which Ghana was robbed of huge sums of revenue as a result of the non-repatriation of gold export proceeds of over $2.3 billion into the country.
No amount of the $2.3 billion gold export proceeds, which relate to only the year 2016, was repatriated into the country, as required by the laws of Ghana, thus enriching some unscrupulous foreigner gold dealers, mainly Indians and Chinese, and their Ghanaian collaborators.
This development may come as a confirmation of the red flags raised by the Association of Gold Exporters of Ghana, an umbrella body of local small-scale gold exporters, earlier in the year, alleging dubious business deals, including alleged money laundering, by Indians, Chinese and other foreign nationals, with the connivance of some management and board members of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company.
Asante Asare, leader of the AGEG, alleged: “PMMC is exporting gold on behalf of third parties and these guys are not bringing the money back and this is creating a huge vacuum within the sector. PMMC, no matter how much they ship, they don’t repatriate one percent.”
The about 148 exporting companies, many having foreign ownership, carried out their alleged fraudulent businesses using the PMMC as a conduit, with Ghanaians allegedly fronting for them.
According to impeccable insider information from the PMMC, those who fronted for the foreigners included staff, as well as past management and board members of company.
The paper has gathered that the previous Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government failed to ensure the repatriation of the gold export proceeds because some of the appointees of the former president were beneficiaries of the illegal activities.
In view of this development, the Bank of Ghana has suspended the PMMC from shipping gold out of the country, a fact that has been confirmed by Kwadwo Opare-Hammond, the new Chief Executive Officer of the company.
During the recent inauguration of the new board of the PMMC, Dr Opare-Hammond described the company as “comatose”, in view of how badly it was managed under the previous government.
The new CEO has, however, expressed his determination to work assiduously with the new board and all the other relevant stakeholders to revamp the company, while seeking innovative ways of generating income.
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