MenzGold has denied taking cash depositsGold trading company, MenzGold Ghana Limited, has dismissed claims made by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) that it has no licence to trade in gold. Managing Director of the PMMC, Opare Hammond, had said the licence it granted MenzGold to buy and sell gold in 2014 has been revoked, thus making it illegal for MenzGold to do business. “The Minerals Commission would usually give you the license and there is a small clause that says ‘you buy gold for export’ and I don’t know if that is what they [Menzgold] are relying on to do this. If that is what they are relying on, then they are doing the wrong thing. One is supposed to buy and package the raw gold before exporting it,” he explains. These came up in the heat of issues arising from the Bank of Ghana’s caution to the public not to make money deposits at MenzGold because it is not licensed to take deposits. MenzGold had responded claiming it only trades in gold and does not take deposits, a transaction the PMMC has challenged. Read:Disregard “insensitive” BoG: Menzgold Ghana allays fears, says it’s clean But Lawyer for MenzGold, Kwame Akuffo, in another interview said the claims are untenable. According to him, the Association of Gold Exporters of Ghana took up arbitration against the Bank of Ghana and the PMMC and it was that the arbitrator “held that the parties have agreed that the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources shall then nominate the PMMC as the government’s independent at-sale-laboratory.” “So immediately this occurred in 2015 there was no need to renew the license with the PMMC”, he said. He claims MenzGold proceeded on to acquire their licence from the Minerals Commission and there has since not been a point where their licence have been revoked. “We moved on to the Minerals Commission to obtain an export license. There has never been a singular instance, or a plural instance or multiple instances where the PMMC revoked the licence of Menzgold or MenzBank Ghana Limited. It’s never occurred”, he noted. Mr. Akuffo is worried that the posture of PMMC does not augur well for the integrity of MenzGold and amounts to defamation. “So when Mr Opare Hammond does so, he’s engaged in economic defamation, he’s engaged in undermining the integrity and reputation of Menzgold.” Lawyer Akuffo advised Mr Hammond to stay within the limits of his office observing “he oversteps the boundaries of the jurisdiction allotted to him by his office. He is not the public relations officer of the Minerals Commission. He is responsible for the conducts of staff and the regulations of the PMMC.” By editors.3news.com |Ghana
