Special topics
Vice Chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, PIAC, Kwame Jantuah said PIAC is ready to monitor the significant inflow and utilization of oil revenue to government should ExxonMobil, or any other petroleum company starts production in commercial quantities.
He noted that PIAC has built capacity over the years to be able to monitor revenues generated in the country’s petrochemical industry.
Mr Jantuah spoke to JoyBusiness in an exclusive interview after addressing Journalists in a workshop organized by the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists, IFEJ on analysis of the semi-annual report of PIAC.
“We will show you that we have the capacity and we will not allow them [ExxonMobil] to do things that are ultra-varies to our laws,” he said.
“I don’t think PIAC would sit down and say because it is ExxonMobil, we are going to give them preferential treatment, no I don’t think so and I don’t think anybody in government should do that…because we are a sovereign country,” Mr Jantuah added.
Ghana has signed Petroleum Agreement with ExxonMobil for the Deep Water Cape Three Points area for ultra-deepwater oil exploration.
The deal would have to be ratified by parliament after a local partner also appends its signature.
Mr Jantuah believes that government will do due diligence on the operations of the company in order to benefit the citizenry.
The ExxonMobil deal is expected to generate more employment and deepen Ghana’s economic development.