Who are the faces behind Agyapa Royalties? -CSOs demand transparency from govt

The Alliance of CSOs working on Extractives, Anti-corruption and good governance which is made of 15 CSOs has urged the government to come clean on the faces behind Agyapa Royalties Limited which was recently established as a special purpose vehicle to manage the country’s gold royalties.

The CSOs are asking the government to reveal the shareholder, directors and manager of this new entity who they fear could be politically exposed persons.

Until this and all other relevant documents related to the deal is made public, the CSOs have asked the government to suspend the deal.

The CSOs believe a consultative process that respects the views of Ghanaians in such an important decision would have been useful in shaping government’s policy.

The CSOs include CSOs Open Licensing Monitoring Group, Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Centre for Extractives and Development Africa (CEDA), Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Citizen's Movement Against Corruption (CMAC), Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas (CSPOG), Penplusbyte and Oil Watch Ghana.

The rest are the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Publish What You Pay (PWYP), Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL), IMANI Ghana and Women Aspire.

Consensus building

Addressing the media at a press conference in Accra, the Spokesperson for the CSOs, Dr Steve Manteaw, said the opaque manner in which the policy was being implemented, the relatively weak transparency and public oversight arrangements, and the haste with which the government was running to the market in spite of concerns raised by a broad spectrum of the Ghanaian populace did not engender public trust and consensus building around matters of public interest.

“This approach rather raises moral and governance questions. The assumption that once everything goes through parliament, it is above board and represents the interest of all Ghanaians is deceptive and turns democracy on its head. It makes the elected, the only relevant stakeholders in policy making, and as former U.S. President, Barack Obama once indicated, it wrongly assumes that democracy is a transaction executed between leaders and the people only at elections,” he explained.

He said while the intention of government might be genuine and aimed at optimising the benefits of gold royalties to the state, the lack of consultations on the bill that eventually passed into the Minerals Income Investment Fund(MIIF)Act, (2018), Act 978, with its 2020 amendments was responsible for the lack of public support for its implementation.

More suspicion

Dr Manteaw noted that the recent amendment to the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act created more suspicion.  

He said the rushed amendments inserted worrying clauses, including clauses that lifts the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Agyapa Royalties, above Ghanaian tax laws, waves Ghana’s sovereign immunity, and by that exposes the country to the risk of damaging lawsuits should any future government seek to reverse this transaction.

“What we find even more repulsive about this whole transaction is the  provision  that  permits Agyapa  Royalties,  a  supposed  company  of  the  sovereign  state,  registered  in  a  tax haven,  to borrow  money  or  raise  equity  in  foreign  currency  from  any  source  on  the  back  of  the  gold royalties of Ghanaians   without   the   requirement   for   any   further   approval,   consent,   or administrative act of the Government of Ghana -Sect.33(2)(a).    

Unanswered questions

He said although there have been several attempts by the government to clarify some concerns, there were still some significant questions which remained unanswered.

“Are the managers and directors of Agyapa not politically exposed persons, and were they not selected through a non-competitive process? Just last week, we sighted a call for expression of interest, placed in the Daily Graphic, inviting prospective consultants for the development of a strategic plan for the Mineral Income Investment Fund. While we welcome the open and transparent process for the firm selection relative to this assignment, we have not found evidence of the same openness in the creation of the SPV and the appointment of its directors.”

“Again, it beats our imagination as to why an entity, without a corporate strategy and approved spending plans, will proceed to raise $1 billion and cede $500 million to government in such indecent haste, especially when there is no known national emergency to warrant such rush,” he asked.

Dr Manteaw said the CSOs also wanted to find out the dividend policy on the investment being sought on the London Stock Exchange.

“This is a crucial part of the entire transaction which will tell Ghanaians how the investors will benefit from the royalties of the state. This also allows the public to see whether indeed the deal is beneficial or not. Shockingly, parliament showed no interest in this and rather waved its oversight,” he said.