The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revoked the export license of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), a company that exports gold and other minerals.
This was confirmed by the Chief Executive Officer Kojo Opare Hammond on the Citi Breakfast Show.
“As at now, we are not doing shipping of Gold. Even with our diamond which we do not have any problems with, most of the time I have to really go and plead with them(BoG) to allow us to move. In fact, Bank of Ghana is really upset with this situation that we came to find ourselves in. But as we speak now, PMMC cannot export goods because of what happened previously” Mr. Hammond said.
The BoG‘s decision follows PMMC’s inability to account for gold proceeds of 2.3 billion dollars that were exported out of the country.
“2.3billion dollars worth of gold was shipped through PMMC and none of the money that was earned was returned into the country as required by law” he stressed.
The Bank of Ghana in 2016 announced PMMC as the sole exporter of gold.
PMMC is a limited liability company operating under the Companies’ code, with the Government of Ghana as the sole shareholder.
The Association of Gold Exporters of Ghana (AGEG) earlier asked the BoG to rescind appointing the PMMC as the certifier for gold exports as they argued that the PMMC was involved in dubious business deals including money laundering by Indians and Chinese with help of some managers of PMMC.
But Mr. Hammond confirms that investigations are being conducted by the CID.
“This issue actually came up at one of the meetings we held with the Minister of Finance and he immediately asked the CID to take over and begin investigations into this and that is what is ongoing now”.
Meanwhile Tax Analyst Ali Nakyea Abdallah has tasked authorities to follow up on the issue and ensure culprits are punished accordingly.
“If the report is now out, I will be interested in how they can follow up and make sure we receive these monies because if indeed the gold moved out, then we should get the compensation through the payment. We have to also make sure that any person found culpable does not stay in there. I believe in trying to find where the loss is, recover it and punish the person. We need to recover first before we punish” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nakyea was of the view that the country’s export earnings should be enough to stop the government from borrowing.
“If there are illicit flows, you will see clearly that what we are losing if accounted for we are net creditors. We don’t need to borrow” he exclaimed.
