Small Scale mining groups demand audit of Inter-ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining

Some stakeholders in the mining industry want a full audit into the activities of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining as well as its expenditure following its dissolution.

The stakeholders, which include the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners and the Concerned Small Scale Miners Association, say there are questions begging for answers following the dissolution of the committee.

“I think the government should not just dissolve it, but we should have a full audit so that we know how much money they spent.”

“When we do the audit, we will know what the resources that were given to the inter-ministerial committee was used for and account properly,” Godwin Armah, the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners said in an interview.

Michael Kwadwo Peprah, the President of the Concerned Small Scale Miners Association, also stressed that there was the need to take a critical look at the committee’s operations because of past controversy.

“They need to be answering questions by now. Where are those missing excavators? Where is the gold? Where are the cars they seized from small scale miners?”

Small scale miners have previously complained about malfeasance from the state in the enforcement of laws against illegal small scale mining.

At a point, a ban was placed on all forms of small scale mining which the small scale miner groups felt was unfair.

The committee, which was headed by the former Minister of Environment, Science Technology, and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, was established by the Akufo-Addo administration to check illegal mining activities.

In his last State of the Nation Address, President Akufo-Addo called for broader stakeholder engagements on how to tackle illegal mining.

He subsequently dissolved the committee which was instituted to clamp down on illegal mining activities.