Joseph Albert Quarm, the former Member of Parliament for Manso Nkwanta

Former NPP MP fingered in Prof Frimpong-Boateng's galamsey report demands apology

GraphicOnline Apr - 21 - 2023 , 05:58 3 minutes read

Joseph Albert Quarm, the former Member of Parliament for Manso Nkwanta, has refuted accusations by former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, that he engaged in illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey.

Professor Frimpong-Boateng claimed in a report that Mr Quarm, who was a member of the Minerals Commission, obtained several large-scale mining concessions in his district, which he sold to private individuals, including party members.

The report alleged that the MP “ended up selling these concessions to private individuals, including party members for two hundred thousand Cedis per concession. This infuriated the party in the constituency so during the 2020 primaries to select a candidate the electorate voted against Mr. Quarm, the sitting MP, who was more resourced than other candidates. Although there were allegations that he “camped” delegates and attempted to bribe them, he lost to a lesser known individual who did not have any financial muscle.”

Mr Quarm denied the allegations, stating that he does not own any concessions and called on Professor Frimpong-Boateng to apologise and retract the claims.

“This is most unfortunate and this is a total lie. I do not own a concession and while I don’t own a concession, how can I sell a concession? To me, once he has not accepted that the report is from him, I can’t say much but if the report is from him, then for a mining concession, there must be documents covering it bearing my name. I will advise that your station should request from him all documents bearing my name,” Mr Quarm said in an interview with Citi FM.

“I don’t even own a pin of a concession, let alone several… I don’t have any concessions. If he confirms that it is from him, I will let my lawyers write to him to demand retraction and apology, and I will advise myself”.

The report also accused some members of the governing New Patriotic Party of engaging Chinese nationals to undertake galamsey on their behalf.

"Throughout our struggle with illegalities in the small-scale mining sector, what baffled me was the total disregard of the President’s commitment to protect the environment. I can state without any equivocation that many party officials from the National to the unit committee level had their friends, PAs, agents, relatives, financiers or relatives engaged in illegal mining,” Prof. Frimpong-Boateng alleged in his report.

“Most of them engaged Chinese working for them. I am not referring to party people who had their legitimate concession and were mining sustainably as they were instructed to do. There are appointees in the Jubilee House that are doing or supporting illegal mining or interfering with the fight against the menace.”