Lack of openness, cause of govt, mining sector conflict — Aubyn
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Dr Tony Aubyn, has identified the lack of transparency and the absence of an honest partnership between the government and mining firms as the major causes of mistrust and conflict between the two parties.
Advertisement
He said the situation created suspicion between the government and the mining firms, in most cases leading to tension, noting that that should not be the case had the two partners been aligned.
Lack of alignment
Dr Aubyn, who was speaking to the Daily Graphic in Cape Town, South Africa, cited the example of Canada and Australia where their governments and the mining sectors were properly aligned.
He said in their cases, any increase in taxes by the government did not result in agitation from the mining sector because both parties were in constant dialogue on policy decisions.
“The gap between the government and industry has to be bridged in order to have a shared understanding of which areas we really need to channel the revenue from our industry,” he said.
Panel discussion
During a panel discussion dubbed, “Australia-Africa Mining Forum”, Dr Aubyn spoke on how mining could be used as a transformatory tool to improve the lives of the people.
According to him, it was imperative for governments to have a clear vision of where to channel revenue from mineral resources, adding that the lack of partnership between governments and stakeholders in mining was not good enough.
Dr Aubyn underscored the need for local content to be embraced by all mining companies.
Other Trending Stories
Resource nationalisation
Speaking on resource nationalisation in the mining sector and what drove tax policy changes in the sector, Dr Aubyn identified two driving forces — internal and external.
With respect to the internal forces, the CEO explained that following the rebasing of Ghana’s economy which had placed the country in a middle income category, the government needed to raise funds from other sources to support sectors of the economy as a result of limited budgetary support.
“The exaggerated expectation of what mining and other natural resources can do for the country is also a major driver,” he said.
Turning the spotlight on the external driver, Dr Aubyn observed that pressure from the international community, especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Ghana to implement tax policy changes, without a recourse to their implications, was not in the interest of industry.
Writer’s email: sebastian.syme@graphic.com.gh