Gov’t to deploy integrated financial system to 156 MMDAs

Government has said it is committed to deploying the Ghana Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMIS) to the 156 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA) by March 2018, to crack down on financial malpractices and wasteful public spending. 

 

The GIFMIS implementation, which started in 2012, has been deployed to 60 MMDAs to improve efficiency and achieve comprehensive and transparent management of public funds.

Mr. Kwaku Kwarteng, Deputy Minister for Finance, said this at a stakeholders’ forum in Accra that brought together representatives from the Local Government Service Secretariat; Metropolitan, Municipal District Chief Executives; and Presiding Members among others. 

The forum was aimed at discussing the roadmap and major activities to ensure a smooth implementation, and also to establish stronger dialogue with stakeholders at the Ministries, Department and Agencies and MMDAs.

Mr. Kwarteng explained that implementation of GIFMIS is in line with government’s efforts to create a more business-friendly environment and invariably harness better opportunities for the country through improved fiscal discipline, containing deficit, and eliminating corruption as part of concerted efforts to ensure good governance.

The GIFMIS, he indicated, is meant to replace all stand-alone legacy financial management systems at the MDAs and MMDAs, with the possibility of interfacing with other systems that need to be maintained. 

This is to assist in achieving improved comprehensive, transparent and effective management of public financial resources.

“There is a need to review the progress of work to ensure that all policy, administrative, operational and technical issues are being addressed effectively to ensure an effective implementation of the IGFS on the GIFMIS. 

“I encourage MDAs and MMDAs to accept the GIFMIS and adopt it to process financial transactions - including Internally Generated Funds transactions, which are exclusively in your domain, and to generate reports accordingly. We all have a role to play in making this a success,” he said.

The Controller and Accountant General, Mr. Eugene Ofosuhene, explained that the last two decades have seen an enormous transformation in public financial management, with a marked shift from manual to electronic systems.

He said it is in line with such developments that government entreats management of MMDAs to accord the team the needed cooperation to ensure a successful rollout.

“I dare say that strict adherence to the tenets of GIFMIS will lead to the elimination of corruption in MDAs and MMDAs in the country.

“I am convinced that successful implementation of GIFMIS throughout all MDAs and MMDAs in the country, in line with the Public Financial Management Act 621(2016), will go a long way to reduce external queries and render the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament redundant as regards public financial controls and management,” he said.

Dr. Nana Ato Arthur, Head of the Local Government Service, said the benefit of the GIFMIS cannot be over-emphasised.

The system, when fully implemented, will address problems concerning the lack of integration between budget preparation and execution systems, inadequate budgetary controls, and lack of interface between various public finance management systems across MDAs and MMDAs among others. 

“Another key milestone ahead of us is to implement the electronic funds transfer and automatic bank reconciliation for public funds, fixed asset modules, among others.

“The success of all these interventions will depend on our solid commitment. It is our wish that we not only speak but demonstrate an high level of commitment to the process,” he indicated.

Gold Coast Refinery pushes for free zones permit to upscale production

Gold Coast Refinery, a leading gold refiner in the country, has asked government to grant it a Free Zones certification permit to enable it upscale production capacity.

The Free Zone status will enable the company to import large volumes of raw gold from the sub-region, then refine and export it to the global market.

B&FT has gathered that the company has already submitted an application to government to be considered for a Free Zone certification permit to be granted. 

Mr. Sampson Nortey, Director of Gold Coast Refinery, in an interview with B&FT said: “If we have Free Zones status we can import gold from the sub-region, refine and export. All of that will upscale our production. Currently, we are doing just five percent of our capacity.

“About 90 percent of what we are doing here is for export. But the industry is such that we don’t get certain privileges. 

“The fiscal regimes. such as taxes, import duties among others, make our operations very difficult, expensive and uncompetitive if we are to compete in the global market. But with the Free Zones facility it softens companies like the local refineries.” 

Mr. Nortey said this after the Minister of Trade, Alan Kyerematen, led a delegation from the ministry to tour the refinery and acquaint themselves with the company’s operations.

The chemical line of the refinery, Mr Nortey said, has an installed capacity of 600 kg of gold per day and 180 metric tonnes per annum, while it also has the capacity to smelt about 150 kg of refined gold at a time.

Explaining the reason for the low production level of just five percent, Nortey indicated that it is largely due to the low stock of gold it receives from the market, adding that the company is seriously under-producing at an average of 5 percent of the refinery’s capacity.

Currently, the refinery only receives inputs from small-scale producers of gold in the country, since it does not have a contract yet with any of the large producing companies.

“Due to the strict regulations on the source of gold input for refineries on the international market, it is impossible for the company to buy from illegal producers - unlike its counterparts from India,” he stated. 

He however expressed hope that in the next six months the refinery will go into contract with some producers of gold in the country to allow it increase the refinery’s input-feed.

Nortey appealed for government to intervene and enhance the access to raw gold input, by ensuring large producers of gold in the country refine or add value to at least 20 percent of their produce before exporting out of the country.

“Last year, the country was able to make an output of about 100 metric tonnes of gold; so, if we have an installed capacity to refine 180 metrics tonnes per annum, that should be more than the country’s total production,” he said.

Nortey stated that the refinery could take the West Africa sub-region’s entire production, since statistics for last year show that entire production in the sub-region was about 163 metric tonnes. If the refinery should operate in a double shift, it has a capacity of 300 to 340 metric tonnes per annum. 

The Minister of Trade, Mr. Alan Kyerematen, interacting with media after touring the refinery, explained that government will provide all the support required for gold refineries in the country to succeed.

“Obviously, if the company requires any other form of public investment we will look at it purely on a commercial basis,” he said.

He added: “What we have seen here shows that government is on the right track in making the conscious effort of adding value to its natural resources. Our primary desire is to make sure that they have successes as a private company”.

Commending management for the excellent operations being undertaken, Mr. Kyerematen said: “As a government we can talk about industrialising the country, and we believe that it is the only way we can sustain our economy as it provides opportunity for us to create quality job opportunities for citizens”.

He indicated that for over 100 years the country has depended on gold and cocoa. “Regrettably, we have been shipping our raw gold without refining it. It provides an opportunity for us to expand the size of our economy, so we take value addition very seriously.”

He commended the company again for ensuring that over 90 percent of its staff are Ghanaian.

Asubonteng speaks on Obuasi Mine restructuring

AngloGold Ashanti Limited has said its Obuasi Mine is currently undergoing restructuring, with the aim of making it more sustainable in future.

 

The company, which has not been in production for close to two years running, has not reneged on its social commitments to the communities it operates in during the challenging period.

Mr. Eric Asubonteng, Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine, said this at the 6^th Business in Africa public lecture organised by AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) in collaboration with the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana in Accra, aimed at crystallising Africa’s future.

The 6^th lecture, under the topic ‘Africa Rising: Wheel of fortune or Genuine Social Transformation’ which has been held in October each year, has been a major event on the university’s academic calendar as it offers the mining giant an opportunity to contribute to the knowledge of enhancement, not only at the Institute of African Studies but the whole university community and beyond.

The AGA has been funding the Institute of African studies’ Kwame Nkrumah Chair since its launch in 2007.

Mr. Asubonteng, explained that the company has implemented a number of social interventions which are ultimately geared toward improving livelihoods, especially in its operational communities.

“We continue to run health and educational facilities in our host communities. We run the AGA Malaria Control Programme, not only in our immediate host communities of Obuasi and Tarkwa, but also in areas like the Upper West and Upper East Regions of Ghana - resulting in an unprecedented reduction in the incidence of malaria in those areas.”

He stated that the institution’s core value is to promote transformational leadership and governance, and he believes such lectures will stimulate and raise the national consciousness about the need to carry out business in a way that will address peculiar needs. 

“As a society, we are confronted by challenges of unequal opportunities, perceived or real corruption, poor state of our health and educational sectors among others.”      

He explained that for AGA, any discussion around Africa Rising will be incomplete without touching on the contribution of mining to national development, and that sustainable development remains integral to operating the mine and falls in line with one of AGA’s most cherished values, “To make the communities in which we operate better off for our being there”.

“Although these are not core to the mining business, we believe that they are a necessary complement to improving the livelihoods of the ordinary Ghanaian and strengthening relationships with our host communities, the government, and Ghana as a whole. 

“We strive to do more in future, and we encourage all businesses in Ghana to act similarly. Together, we can build a better society and Ghana,” he said.

 Mr. Kweku Bedu-Addo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of South and Southern Africa Region, Standard Charted Bank, said a well-functioning economy relies on domestic investment.

He said it looks like everything has been done to undermine the very framework that promotes domestic investment. 

Mr. Bedu-Addo indicated that agriculture, housing, transportation and health care ae the major areas that affect the wellbeing of citizens.

He explained that African agriculture is still subsistence, largely underpinned by very inefficient market arrangements that depress farm gate prices to rural producers but inflate retail prices to urban consumers - with scant attention to packaging, processing and extension of shelf-life. 

Food security and inflation, he said, are suboptimal across African, and stressed that agriculture is the “least-resistance path” to growth and job-creation for the teeming youth - adding that it has to be productivity-driven as the entire value chain develops, so as to absorb excess labour. 

“We don't apply science, we act as self-agriculture extension officers. We talk a lot; long on talking short on execution,” he said. 

In Zambia, for instance, before every farming season a soil-scientist is employed to analyse the soil fertility, and based on that they recommend the type of fertiliser and appropriate dosage to apply.

Commenting on housing, Mr. Bedu-Addo stated that there is large population growth with little or no provision for low-income segments of the population - adding this has given rise to rapid growth of unplanned urban settlement with predictable collapse of sanitation standards.

He added that state-owned health facilities are overburdened and under-resourced, while health personnel are overworked and poorly remunerated. 

Having worked in the banking industry for seven years, Mr. Bedu-Addo said there is no balance sheet committed to agriculture, housing and health, because the value chain is so disjointed that they don't know when to put loans in and when to get them out. 

He indicated that investors may direct their funds in mining, oil and gas, but it's difficult to invest such money into agriculture, and called on government to sit up and work with other stakeholders to organise the value chain.