Finance Minister designate

Deputy Minister for Energy, Dr Amin Adam, has jabbed the National Democratic Congress (NDC), asserting members of the party lack adequate understanding of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (Act 815), 2011.

The Deputy Minister made the assertion in parliament following accusations by the NDC that, the Akufo-Addo-led government had breached the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 as well as mismanaged oil revenues in the last three years.   

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Former Deputy Minister for Energy, John Jinapor, during the NDC’s policy discussion forum dubbed ‘State of Ghana’s Energy Sector’ on Wednesday, explained the New Patriotic Party had breached the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, by spending more than the stipulated 70 per cent of the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) on non-capital expenditure rather than capital expenditure.

Per the Act, the NDC argued capital expenditure, is purposely what ABFA is meant for, hence the breach of the Act by the government.

But reacting to their claim, Dr Adam said the NDC misunderstands the law they themselves passed.

“Section 21 (4) of the Act provides for a minimum 70 per cent of the ABFA to be used for public investment expenditure which does not necessarily mean capital expenditure, that is where they misunderstand the law they themselves passed,” he said.

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“Government allocated more of ABFA (oil money) towards free Senior High School and I want to ask if that’s not public expenditure. Just because a chunk of the money went into non-capital spending, they say it’s a  violation of the law. But the same law says we can spend on service delivery, science and education, so where is the violation?” he quizzed.