CSO worry over GH¢3.6m MMT buses rebranding

The Centre for Social Impact Studies (CeSIS), a research and advocacy organization, has expressed concern over government’s decision to use GH¢3.6million to rebrand 116 Metro Mass Transit (MMT) buses.  

According to the 2015 Annual Report on the Petroleum Funds discussed in Parliament, government spent GH¢31,457 on each bus, leading to a cumulative expenditure of GH¢3.6million. This expenditure incurred by the Ministry of Transport was made from the Petroleum Funds.

“We roundly condemn the use of petroleum funds to rebrand Metro Mass Transit buses. Not only is the expenditure for the rebranding immorally outrageous, but the very idea that they came from petroleum funds makes it even more disappointing to say the least.

“We are furthermore compelled to question the government’s own sense of priority in the utilisation of revenues.

“At a time when various regulatory and oversight agencies in the natural resource sector like the Minerals Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Petroleum Commission and Public Interest and Accountability Committee are under-resourced, it makes no sense to spend GH¢3.6million to rebrand vehicles,” said in a statement signed by Richard Ellimah, Executive Director of CeSIS, and made available to the B&FT.

Mr. Ellimah said: “It is sad to note that successive governments have ignored key principles regarding natural resource revenue management, and gone ahead to utilise revenues on items of expenditure that add no value to the lives of residents living in frontline communities, or ameliorate their development challenges occasioned by the presence of these natural resources.

Considering the finite nature of natural resource revenues, it is absolutely necessary for government to concentrate expenditure on sectors like education, health, agricultural productivity and infrastructural development. This is the only way that the people of Ghana can collectively benefit from exploitation of their natural resources.

“We wish to once again call on government to refrain from spending natural resource revenues on items of expenditure that do not accrue to the benefit of residents living in frontline communities.  The wanton use of natural resource revenues for such reckless expenditure should give every Ghanaian cause for concern. Natural resource revenues are not like other conventional sources of revenue available to the state.

“For instance in the past we have seen mining revenues being used on recurrent expenditure like waste management, painting of district assembly administration buildings, purchase of fuel for District Chief Executives’ (DCEs)’ vehicles, repair of telecommunication facilities, among others.

“This has gone a long way to contribute to the increasing social tension in resource-rich communities. Sadly, after more than 100 years of “formal” mining in Ghana the country has very little to show for it.”

He explained that going by lessons in the mining sector, one would have thought that government -- since the discovery of oil and gas in 2007 and commercial production in December 2010 -- would be mindful of the need to utilise petroleum revenues prudently.

Several reports, including those of the Public Interest Accountability Committee (PIAC), have implicated government in the misuse of petroleum funds.

For the past three years mineral royalty has also not been paid, stalling development in mineral-dependent district assemblies.

Moreover, SEND Ghana -- a Ghanaian civil society organization -- reports that government’s own fertiliser subsidy programme has slumped from 50 percent in 2008 to 21 percent in 2015.