The Minority Caucus in Parliament insists that the reported $1.7 billion loss incurred by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the country’s gold purchase programme in 2025 should be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny rather than being reduced to a personal dispute.
The Caucus said although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report attributed the loss to the BoG and not the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), the loss remained a cost to the Ghanaian taxpayer.
In its view, the central issue was not which institution’s books carried the loss but the decisions and terms under which the programme was operated.
“Ghana is not served when a serious question about public money becomes a personal quarrel or political scoring,” the Caucus said.
Engagement
Speaking at a stakeholder engagement with the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) in Accra yesterday, the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, said: “The IMF does not say that loss sits on GoldBod’s own books, and we do not dispute GoldBod’s audited surplus.
“But the huge loss is still Ghana’s loss, and our question is not whose books; it is whose decisions.
“This is because this is huge money that could have been properly utilised to address major challenges facing the country today, including paying our teachers who are on strike,” he said.
The engagement, held at the invitation of the CCG, was to allow the council to understand the perspective of the Minority, review the documentation informing your position and collectively explore pathways towards ensuring transparency without compromising the integrity of a vital national economic asset.
The discussion focused on “GoldBod and matters arising: Narcotics and parliamentary oversight, accountability and the rule of law, and illegal mining”.
A similar but separate invitation has been extended to the management of the GoldBod.
The Minority Leader was accompanied by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Weija-Gbawe, Jerry Ahmed Shaib, who is also the Second Deputy Minority Whip; the MP for Okere, Daniel Nana Addo-Kenneth; the MP for Suhum, Frank Asiedu Bekoe; the MP for Anyaa-Sowutuom, Emmanuel Tobbin, as well as the MP for Akim Swedru, Kennedy Osei Nyarko.
Others were the MP for Offinso North, Fred Kyei Asamoah; the MP for Juaben, Francis Kwabena Owusu-Akyaw; the MP for Akim Oda, Alexander Akwasi Acquah, and a former MP for Yendi, Farouk Aliu Mahama.
Hurdles
The Minority Leader said the opposition had consistently sought a parliamentary inquiry into the gold purchase programme since December 2025, when the IMF first reported losses.
He said a motion for a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry was defeated by the Majority in March, while an attempt to have the matter decided by secret ballot was also rejected.
He said the Minority had since filed a fresh motion and was hopeful that Parliament would allow the matter to be considered.
The MP for Effutu said the issue had become more pertinent following the IMF’s latest figure, which put the 2025 loss at more than $1.7 billion, rather than the earlier figure of $214 million.
He said GoldBod operated the programme as an agent of the BoG and was paid fees for its role, while the BoG carried the loss.
“The $1.7 billion loss is recorded on the BoG’s balance sheet. GoldBod bought the gold as the bank’s agent and was paid fees for doing so, and its own accounts can show a surplus at the same time as the programme it runs records a loss. Both things are true,” he said.
“But one public institution keeps the fees and reports a surplus, while another absorbs the loss, and the citizen pays either way,” he said.
Scrutiny critical
Mr Afenyo-Markin said the inquiry should establish who determined the terms of the gold purchase programme and how the decisions leading to the loss were made.
He further linked the call for scrutiny to concerns over the source of the gold being purchased under the programme, saying a programme buying record volumes of gold should be able to demonstrate that the gold was not sourced from illegal mining.
“When the first motion was moved, the Minority argued an inquiry was needed to ensure State funds were not tied to illegal mining,” he said.
Cocaine seizures
The Minority Leader also raised concerns over the recent seizures of large consignments of narcotics linked to Ghana, a development he said had become a national security issue that required bipartisan action and stronger parliamentary oversight.
He commended security officers involved in recent seizures at Pedu and Tema, as well as the Interior Minister, who reported in August that more than 200 arrests and over 160 prosecutions had been made in 20 months.
“But look at what the record tells us. The largest Ghanaian shipments are being found in Amsterdam, Antwerp and Dunkirk, not at Tema,” he said.
He said Belgian customs now ranked Ghana fifth among countries from which cocaine seized at Antwerp had been shipped, making Ghana the only African country on the list.
He warned that the international trafficking of narcotics was damaging the reputation of Ghanaian businesses and exporters.
“When cocaine is hidden in cassava flour, timber, gari and plastic waste, it is our farmers’ and exporters’ goods that European customs will open, delay and doubt,” he said.
“It is our passport that is searched more closely, and our port whose reputation suffers with shipping lines and investors.”
Potential threat
The Minority Leader said the implications went beyond Ghana’s international reputation, stressing that drugs that entered the country could fuel youth addiction, violence and institutional corruption.
“That is why this is a national security question, not a party question,” he said.
He added that the Minority invoked Article 112(3) of the Constitution on September 18, with the support of more than 15 per cent of Minority members, to request the recall of Parliament to consider the matter.
He said the House subsequently sat on September 29 this year, but the Speaker ruled the Minority’s motion for a bipartisan ad hoc committee inadmissible on grounds that it overlapped with matters before the courts.
He said the proposed committee was intended to examine the systems through which the consignments were processed, inspected, cleared and exported, rather than determine the guilt of suspects.
“With the greatest respect to the Rt. Hon. Speaker, he ruled the motion inadmissible on the ground that it overlapped with cases before the courts,” he said.
