AG’s report already contained 2015 bauxite proceeds – BoG

The Bank of Ghana has clarified that the US$41.05 million proceeds from bauxite had already been accounted for in the Auditor General’s 2015 Statements of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payments report.

Documents cited by Citi Business News indicate that financial proceeds of the mineral were accounted for but in a separate column as the means of repatriation did not form part of those directly controlled by the Bank of Ghana.

Earlier the Bank of Ghana failed to clarify receipts of bauxite accounts when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquired of the financial stake of volumes of bauxite exported in 2015.

PAC then directed the Bank of Ghana to immediately furnish it with details of proceeds from the country's export of bauxite in 2015.

The directive also followed an allegation by the Effutu MP, Alexander Afenyo Markin at Tuesday's PAC sitting, that the proceeds were not captured, insisting that information available to him suggests Ghana exported over 40,000 tonnes of bauxite in 2015.

But the documents available to Citi Business News stated that “The proceeds from the export of bauxite in 2015 of US$41.05million was captured in the Statement of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payments of Bank of Ghana as part of non-traditional exports in the Schedule of Earnings of Dealer Commercial Banks in Table 17 of the first half report and Table 18 of the second half report.”

The document further stated that 'the proceeds were not captured in the foreign exchange receipts and payments report because repatriation through the commercial banks do not constitute receipts in foreign currency that increase the reserve of the country as managed by Bank of Ghana.'

The document also confirms that total bauxite export volume and value for 2015 was captured in the Balance of Payments statistics, just as in all other years before and after.

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By: Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana