Public Interest And Accountability Committee Begins Work

The 13-member Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) inaugurated last September by the Minister of Finance, Dr Kwabena Duffour, to monitor and evaluate how the government manages and uses petroleum revenues for the benefit of Ghanaians, has begun work.

The committee is chaired by Major Daniel Sowa Ablorh-Quarcoo and made up of representatives nominated from 13 institutions named by the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011, (Act 815). Major Ablorh-Quarcoo represents the Institute of Chartered

Accountants on the committee.
A press release signed by a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Fiifi Kwetey, and issued in accra yesterday said the PIAC was created as an oversight committee by the Petroleum Act and charged, among others, with the responsibility to monitor, evaluate compliance with the law, provide independent assessment and, above all, provide space and platform for the general public to debate the management and use by government of the petroleum revenue and the investments made from the revenue.

Other institutions represented on the committee are the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the National House of Chiefs (NHC), the Association of Queen Mothers, the Association of Ghana Industries and Chamber of Commerce, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) and the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

The rest are the Christian groups, made up of the Catholic Secretariat, the Christian Council and the Pentecostal Council who are represented on rotational basis, the Federation of Muslim Councils and Ahmadiyya Mission also represented on rotational basis and the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The release said since inauguration, members of the PIAC had been working on the quite, putting together a secretariat and updating themselves on available relevant information and statistics relating to Ghana’s oil industry, as well as consulting on best practices regarding the management and use of petroleum revenues as pertains elsewhere in oil-rich countries.

“We intend to dedicate our time on the committee to faithfully monitor and render a true account of the oil revenues to Parliament, the Executive and Ghanaians in general.

This, we hope, will give the public some confidence in what to expect from the oil find at any given time,” the release quoted Major Ablorh-Quarcoo, the PIAC chairman, to have said..

The PIAC will formally be unveiled at a press conference tomorrow, Thursday, December 15, 2011 at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra at 10 in the morning, where it is expected to give an overview of the performance of Ghana’s oil sector in the course of 2011 and also announce the programme of its oversight activities for 2012.