Speaking at the last sitting of Parliament on Tuesday, the MP, amid his allegations, questioned how effective these dialogues and conferences have been in the fight.

However, a statement released by the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry says the allegation is false and has no factual basis.

The statement explained the expenses are not limited to conferences and dialogues, but other policies and programmes like the establishment of a Monitoring and Evaluation Team, together with a Situation Room, to receive reports of illegal mining and act swiftly on them.

The expenditure also includes the introduction of the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme (NAELP) and the introduction of the Small Scale Miners Award Scheme to encourage responsible mining.

Others include revamping the Community Mining Schemes, the establishment of Small Scale Mining Committees in the various mining districts across the country, the resourcing of the Minerals Commission, and the introduction of the mercury-free gold katcha to process gold.

On the dialogues, the statement said the holding of the National Dialogue on Small Scale Mining was pursuant to the call by President Nana Akufo-Addo on a common non-partisan approach to fight the menace.

The Ministry added that although the plan was that dialogues be held in all 16 regions, it decided, as a way of prudently managing the public purse, to group the regions and hold zonal dialogues.

One of these was held in Kumasi for the forest zone and another in Tamale for the savannah zone.

In addition to these dialogues, the statement said the Ministry undertook a working tour to all the regions and engaged stakeholders to support the fight against galamsey.

Among the stakeholders engaged include the Council of State; the National House of Chiefs; the Regional Houses of Chiefs of all sixteen regions; Regional Ministers, Regional Security Councils (REGSECs) of the sixteen regions; the Ghana Chamber of Mines; the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM); Civil Society Organisations in the mining sector; and miners in the field.

“All of these engagements were fully funded by the Ministry, and in addition provided some funding to the REGSECs to assist in the fight against galamsey in the regions,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the Ministry said it expects the relevant state agencies responsible for auditing the accounts of the Ministry to do their work at the appropriate time.

The Minority in Parliament has alleged that the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry has used over ¢10 million to organise a national dialogue on the government’s fight against small-scale mining, also known as ‘galamsey’.

With the challenges posed by illegal mining to the mining industry, the Ministry organised a National Consultative Dialogue in Accra, Tamale and Kumasi on small-scale mining to solicit views, proposals and suggestions on how to deal with the threat of ‘galamsey’ in the country.

But speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, the Deputy Ranking Member on the Lands Committee, Alhassan Suhuyini, argued that the budget for the dialogue is outrageous, insisting misappropriation of funds by the ministry.

According to the Tamale North MP, the Ministry spent an amount of ¢2,140,000 on the national consultative dialogue in Accra, another ¢3.7 million on the dialogue held in the Northern and middle belt and another ¢5.4 million on Regional tours on illegal mining by the Ministry.

“All of these put together Mr Speaker we are talking about more than 10 conferences and dialogue and this is a document from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources during the consideration stage of the 2022 Budget statement. Mr Speaker ¢10 million just on conferences and dialogue on how to fight Galamsey in this country. How does this impact the fight against Galamsey?” he quizzed.

The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor, in an interview on GBC’s Breakfast Show in January this year said it requires more than a decade’s effort for Ghana to be free from ‘galamsey’.

“We are not out of the woods yet. We have not gotten to a satisfactory stage yet. We have not gotten to a situation we can say that we have a full grip on the issue of illegal small-scale mining in our country.

“I’ll be the first to admit that it wouldn’t take 4,5, 8 or 10 years to rid our country of illegal scale mining completely,” he said on GBC Breakfast Show.

During the interview, Mr Jinapor noted that despite the many challenges posed by illegal small-scale mining, the government has chalked some success in the fight against illegal small-scale mining in the country.

“We will also have to admit that we have made considerable gains and we have gotten to a point where we can reasonably be encouraged that a better framework and the building blocks have been put in place to deal with this menace.

“I’m talking about matters to do with how you acquire licenses, whether you do that online, the whole issue of community mining, inspectorate division of the Minerals Commission, issues to do with exploration for mineralized concessions,” he said.