The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has thrown a direct challenge to the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, daring him to invoke parliamentary oversight mechanisms to summon him for questioning rather than resorting to press conferences to propagate what he describes as "falsehoods" against the GoldBod.
Addressing a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Gyamfi questioned why the Minority Leader would address the media within the precincts of Parliament the previous day without utilising the chamber’s established accountability tools.
“I’m waiting with bated breath for Afenyo-Markin’s invitation. I don’t know why he’s delaying and holding press conferences when, as Minority Leader, he can get the Public Accounts Committee to summon me tomorrow or today, and I will appear,” Mr Gyamfi declared.
He added that he had already reached out to the new Majority Leader, James Agalga, to facilitate such an invitation if the Minority Leader continued to delay.
Accuses Afenyo-Markin of persistent falsehoods
Mr Gyamfi said the Minority Leader had waged a “sustained, relentless campaign of lies” against GoldBod over the past months, with Tuesday’s press conference marking a “reckless crescendo” in what he described as a deliberate attempt to mislead the public.
“Afenyo-Markin's modus operandi, which can no longer be allowed to go unanswered, is to repeat the same tired falsehoods as often as possible and on as many platforms as he can, in the hope that repetition will somehow transform fiction into facts and mislead unsuspecting members of the public,” he said.
Audited accounts prove surplus, not losses
Mr Gyamfi presented copies of the Audited Annual Report and Financial Statements of GoldBod for the year ended December 31, 2025, prepared and published by the Auditor-General, as evidence that the institution did not record losses.
According to the report, GoldBod recorded an operational surplus of GH¢907 million and an overall surplus of GH¢5.4 billion.
He stressed that the Auditor-General’s report contained not a single adverse finding against GoldBod, contradicting claims of procurement breaches or violations of the Public Financial Management Act.
IMF report misrepresented
Mr Gyamfi also rejected the Minority’s new narrative that GoldBod is responsible for losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), as referenced in an IMF report.
He challenged Afenyo-Markin to point to any portion of the IMF report where GoldBod is accused of causing the Bank of Ghana’s losses, emphasising that the IMF attributed the $1.7 billion loss to “the significant scaling up” of the programme and exchange rate differentials, not to GoldBod’s operations.
GoldBod was only a buying agent
The CEO explained that GoldBod’s role in 2025 was merely a continuation of the PMMC’s inherited buying agent role under a September 2023 Gold Purchase Agreement with the Bank of Ghana, with the institution having no role in determining selling prices or signing off‑take agreements.
He also questioned how GoldBod could be blamed for losses in 2025 when the Bank of Ghana recorded a $400 million loss under the same programme in 2024 – a year when GoldBod did not exist.
“If we are to accept his argument that losses under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme are attributable to buying agents, then is Afenyo‑Markin saying that buying agents in 2024 caused the loss of $400 million?” he asked.
Fees less than 1% of reported losses
Mr Gyamfi further dismissed claims that fees paid to GoldBod contributed to the losses, noting that the assay fee of 0.258 percent and service fee of 0.5 percent constituted less than 1 percent of the 17 percent loss reported by the IMF.
He emphasised that both fees are legitimate charges for services rendered – the assay fee approved by Parliament under the Fees and Charges Act, and the service fee explicitly provided for in the September 2023 Gold Purchase Agreement to cover logistics, transport, insurance, security and smelting losses.
He challenged the logic of blaming an agent for losses incurred by a principal, likening it to blaming licensed buying companies for losses recorded by Cocoa Board.
“Where in the world is one body corporate blamed for accounting losses incurred by another independent, separate and distinct body corporate without any evidentiary basis?” he asked.
Mr Gyamfi reiterated his readiness to appear before any parliamentary committee to address the matter, urging the Minority Leader to take up the invitation rather than continuing his media campaign.
