Artisanal & Small Scale Mining Africa-Network Wants Youth In Mining Under GYEEDA Investigated

Following Government efforts at promoting the Small Scale Mining Industry in Ghana, conscious attempts have been made by sector agencies to create more jobs and sustain livelihood through the industry.

In furtherance of this objective, Government assisted the retired Mines Workers Foundation (REMWOF) to initiate a project dubbed the Youth in Mining Module under GYEEDA.

As laudable as this initiative was, Ghanaians are yet to see or realize the concrete benefits of this very module: “Youth in Mining” under GYEEDA.

Various stakeholders in the country including ASMAN have expressed worry about the abysmal implementation secrecy of the entire project and wish to call for further enquiry to bring about transparency and accountability.

The special committee charged by HE President Mahama to investigate various allegations of rot in the various programme modules under the GYEEDA, did not scrutinised the Youth in Mining module as they did to the other modules on the basis that the Youth in Mining module contract amount fell below the GH 1, 000,000 threshold they were tasked to investigate. This directive when proven to be true, then small scale miners has been short-changed.

As a civil society group concerned with the promotion of legitimate and sustainable small scale mining in Ghana, ASMAN is concerned about the numerous allegations of corruption that engulfed the project and therefore wish to Petition the Hon. Minister of Employment and Social Welfare to set up an independent committee to investigate this particular Youth in Mining module, which according to the initial report had about GH 392,700 invested.

Among the concerns we expect the committee to address include the ff:

 Whether or not there was any formal contract signed between the service providers and GYEEDA?

 How were the over GH 392,700 disbursed and who were the direct beneficiaries?

 Where is the location of the concession in which they worked on?

 Where are the over 1,000 & 8,000 employees the project claims to have engaged in 2011 and 2012 respectively, we need to identify them?

 Where is the production (gold) made by this project, and how much was accrued?

 What is the current state of the project for the way forward for continuety?

It is our hope that this petition would receive the necessary attention in the shortest possible time to ensure transparency and sustainability in the development of small scale mining industry in Ghana.

Signed

Nii Adjetey-Kofi Mensah
(Executive Director-ASMAN)
Artisanal & Small Scale Mining Africa-Network (ASMAN)

Cell: 0208161636
Email: [email protected]

About ASMAN

Artisanal & Small Scale Mining Africa Network (ASMAN); is a Non-Governmental Organization, which is a network of leading grassroots-based ASM Operators and individuals in Academia.

ASMAN operates as an advocacy platform for addressing the concerns of ASM,
and has extensive stakeholder engagement and consultation experience in Ghana; and
Works as contributing and influencing Government policy on Artisanal & Small Scale
Mining (ASM).

ASMAN submits, find attached a Petition on the above subject-matter for your kind attention.

Yours faithfully,

Nii Adjetey-Kofi Mensah

Executive Director – ASMAN

Cc.

The Executive Secretary, Office of the President, Flag Staff House, Accra.

The Hon. Minister: Lands & Natural Resources, Accra.

The Hon. Minister, Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation (MESTI), Accra.

The Chairman, Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines, Parliament House, Accra.

The Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Accra.

The Commissioner, Commission on Human Rights & Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Accra.

The Chief Executive Officer, Minerals Commission, Accra

The Executive Director(s):

Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII); Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP); Centre for Public

Interest Law (CEPIL); Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC); Centre for

Freedom & Accuracy; Third World Network (TWN); IMANI-Ghana; STAR-Ghana.