Government That Did Not See Undeclared GHC 30 Billion Gold Leave Ghana – Corruption Watch

General News on Wednesday, January 16th, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-01-16

More than 30 billion euros of gold have left the shores of Ghana without any official knowledge, according to reconciled data collected by Corruption Watch.

Corruption Watch compared the Bank of Ghana's data on gold exported over three years – 2015, 2016 and 2017. This amounted to $ 67.85 billion ($ 13.91 billion) .

Another set of data collected from countries (Switzerland, India, United Arab Emirates) importing gold shows that Ghana has bought ¢ 98.32 billion ($ 20.16 billion). The difference is $ 30.47 billion ($ 6.25 billion).

This means that somewhere in the world, a group of people made their fortune with Ghana's resources without giving the government a share of the tax burden.

Perhaps even more disturbing, the data raises questions about the government's position in the extractive industry in Ghana. In the year of the government ban on small-scale mining, Ghana legally exported about the same value as illegally exported.

That was in 2017 when $ 4.98 billion in undeclared gold was exported to these three countries. This represents $ 5.78 billion of reported gold exports to these same countries, which represents a difference of about $ 800 million.

That year, the value of gold imported by these countries was worth $ 10.77 billion, which means the government does not know how $ 4.99 billion reached these countries.

Gold smuggling is a very lucrative business in Ghana that attracts an alarming influx of foreign nationals, especially from China.

"In the last four years, we have shipped nearly 500 kg of gold, which represents more than 20 million US dollars for the United Arab Emirates. Trade has always been very profitable, "said Chan, who facilitates the smuggling leaked to the Business and Financial Times.

Chan, who does not have a license to export gold, pbades it through porous borders and bribes to companies of the licensing company, Precious Minerals and Marketing Company, reported newspaper.

The Bank of Ghana has suspended the PMMC from the direct shipment of gold out of Ghana on unexplained documents and documents, as well as unexplained movements of $ 2.3 billion in gold from the country.

READ THE DECLARATION BY CORRUPTION WATCH

The Summary of Economic and Financial Data of the Bank of Ghana from January 2017 to January 2018 provides official data on Ghana's total gold exports for the period 2015, 2016 and 2017. Over this three-year period, Data show that Ghana has exported for 13.9183 USD of gold billion or 67.8517 billion GHC (using the US dollar benchmark rate of 4.8751 to 1.00 GHC recorded on Monday 14 January 2018 ).

At the same time, data from only three of Ghana's many gold-importing countries show that for the same period 2015-2017, gold having left Ghana's coasts for these three countries, Amounted to at least USD 20.1695 billion or 98.3263 billion GHC.

The gap between the total recorded by the Bank of Ghana and that of the three countries is 6.2512 billion dollars, or 30.4746 billion dollars. These countries are Switzerland, India and the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to the data from BoG, Corruption Watch has collected its data for badysis from UN Comtrade, the Swiss Federal Foreign Office Infodriveindia, which provides a detailed badysis of Ghana's Indian imports as well as portals of interest. Information citing official sources disclosing commercial information.

The result of the badysis and the huge variance between the figures officially released by the BoG and those released on behalf of these countries confirm long-held suspicions that Ghana does not have a solid grip on its gold exports .

Gold smuggling from illegal and small-scale mining has often been blamed for the huge variance in officially released figures between Ghana and the receiving countries.

What is curious, for many, is the fact that in 2017, when the ban on illegal mining and small-scale mining was in effect, at least $ 4.95855 billion worth of gold was exported to Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and India without having been declared to the BoG.

According to the Corruption Watch badysis, the BoG stated that its total gold exports amounted to 5.7862 billion US dollars, while the volume of gold imports from Ghana from Switzerland, India and the United Arab Emirates was worth US $ 10.7717 billion.

In January 2018, President Nana Akufo-Addo reportedly revealed that about US $ 5 billion did not exist in Ghana's gold exports to the UAE.

According to the Citifmonline (Citinewsroom) report, the president of the government, Yaw Osafo Maafo, reportedly learned during an official visit to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, that the United Arab Emirates had registered $ 7 billion worth of money. Imports of gold from Ghana the previous year. .

In other cases, at the end of 2017, the BoG and the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) were accused of not being able to locate most of the companies involved in 2016 exports, worth 2, $ 3 billion in gold, which did not permit the repatriation of foreign currency.

While it has been difficult to locate the culprits, it is well known that many extractive companies have often been accused of tax evasion and the transfer of illicit capital from their operational jurisdictions to their home countries. Africa and developing countries generally suffer the largest losses.

"Customs officers, posted in mines to observe the process of gold melting and recording production volumes, have often stayed in particular mines for more than a decade. The situation may compromise the integrity, and therefore the effectiveness of the monitoring mechanism, "said the CSPOG in its report" Typology and nature of corruption risks in the extractive sector of Ghana. "