To ensure transparency the government should publish the report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) that was set up as part of the efforts to fight the illegal small scale mining (Galamsey) practice in Ghana, a former Minister of Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah has said.
If the government fails, Dr Omane Boamah said, the Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng who chaired the committee should publish it.
“The best way to bring transparency and remove any moral hazard is for the government or Prof. Frimpong Boateng (FB) to publish the said Galamsey report,” he tweeted on Wednesday April 19.
The best way to bring transparency and remove any moral hazard is for the government or Prof. Frimpong Boateng (FB) to publish the said Galamsey report.
— Dr. Omane Boamah (@eomaneboamah) April 19, 2023
Dr Omane’s Boamah’s call follows an accusation made by Prof Frimpong-Boateng that some persons in government especially at the Presidency were interfering with the fight against galamsey, an accusation the president was reported to have ordered investigations to be conducted into in order to ascertain the veracity or otherwise.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng earlier told Ghana Television that “There was an orchestrated scheme, even within the party and government to get me out. Why is it that when I left now everyone is in the forest?”
“I don’t want to go into details now because I have a lot to say on that. Let me tell you that I did not take one excavator for anything, they know the truth. Now things are coming up, we know those who are behind it and the party people who are there, people in government including Jubilee House who are doing galamsey and so on, even now. So let Frimpong Boateng stay in his corner and enjoy his retirement,” he said when he was asked for his answer on the whereabouts of the 500 excavators that were reportedly missing.
This matter resulted in an altercation between Prof Frimpong-Boateng and veteran journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako with the former accusing the latter of “consistent” attacks on him.
In a letter sighted by 3news.com, Prof Frimpong-Boateng protested how Mr Kweku Baako Jnr has attacked him since August, 2010, when he vied for the flagbearer position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“Your attacks on me have been consistent and longstanding,” the heart surgeon wrote on Tuesday, April 18.
“It started in August 2010, when you suggested that I quit the NPP presidential primaries for a strange reason.”
“Furthermore, I was told to suggest a way forward in the fight against illegal mining. I prepared the report, which i signed on 19th March, 2021 and presented to the Chief of Staff. I am solely responsible for the report and I stand by every statement. I presented verifiable facts not innuendos to the Chief if Staff.”