Ghana

The government is fully, actively and effectively engaged in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the EITI process and the government appears to have a strong commitment to the implementation of EITI in Ghana. The attendance of the Chair is less frequent than that of other MSG members, but this does not seem to reflect a lack of government engagement on the whole.

Companies are actively engaged with EITI implementation and see value and tangible outcomes resulting from their participation in the process, citing in particular an improvement in their relationship with communities. The more limited participation by companies from the oil/gas sector beyond those represented on the MSG reflects the relatively recent emergence of the sector and lack of organisation among petroleum companies in the country.

Civil society stakeholders are actively engaged in the EITI process. There is an enabling environment for civil society participation in Ghana, and civil society representatives have been key drivers of the EITI process and implementation. There seem to be some challenges related to communicating and consulting with all interested civil society stakeholders during the EITI reporting cycle, and not only after the publication of reports, which might be related to limited capacity on both sides.

Stakeholders are adequately represented on the multi-stakeholder group (MSG). The MSG has a chair and co-chair and meets regularly to review and guide implementation in the country. They have also participated in ad hoc meetings and have established sub-committees tasked with specific aspects of EITI implementation. There seem to be some issues and practices of the MSG that would need to be clarified in the Ghana EITI Bill.

The work plan has clear objectives linked to national priorities for the extractive sector, as well as detailed actions and timelines, although it does not reflect the full scope of GHEITI’s work. Costing is missing for some items, and implementation is slightly behind schedule. In particular missing funds for the 2015 GHEITI report is of concern.

The legal framework and fiscal regime governing the extractive industries are described in different sections of the 2014 EITI Reports. Information on the roles and responsibilities of the relevant government agencies is included in the reports, as is information on reforms of the system.

The 2017 -2018 EITI Reports comprehensively disclose the respective process for awarding licences.The processes, technical and financial criteria for awarding oil, gas and mining licenses are either systematically disclosed or captured in EITI reporting. A complete list of all oil, gas and mining licenses including awards granted before 2017 are systematically disclosed on the Ghana Petroleum and Mining Registers.

Despite gaps and inconsistencies in the 2016 EITI Reports, Ghana’s Petroleum Register and Online (mining) Repository provide all information required by Requirement 2.3.b for all active mining, oil and gas licenses.

The government’s policy of not publishing contracts is clearly described in the 2014 EITI Reports. The report also describes the actual practice of publishing certain contracts. The reports have recommended to make contract public.

Significant elements of the initial criteria for assessing Beneficial ownership disclosure have been met. A clear government policy and legal basis have been given to beneficial ownership disclosure in Ghana. All material companies have been requested to disclose information based on a comprehensive template, that includes assurance mechanism. Actual disclosures show progress, albeit existing gaps and missing data points. While efforts have been undertaken to promote effective disclosures, there remain substantial gaps. No evidence exists of the MSG’s assessment of comprehensiveness and reliability as well as plans to overcome gaps or weaknesses in reporting

There were no material revenues related to SOEs in mining in 2017-18. The 2017-18 EITI Report confirms the materiality of state participation in oil and gas, and comprehensively lists all state participations upstream. The government systematically discloses equity interests and terms associate with GNPC’s interests in contract areas and GNPC’s published 2017-18 audited financial statements

The 2014 EITI Reports contain informative overviews of both the oil/gas and mining sectors and broad information on exploration activities.

The 2016 EITI Reports provide official production volumes and values for all six key extractives commodities produced in 2016.

The 2016 EITI Reports provide official export volumes and values for each of the five extractives commodities exported in 2016.

The 2017 -18 EITI Report provide a definition of the materiality thresholds for selecting companies and revenues. All government entities reported comprehensively, despite the continuous efforts by the MSG to ensure comprehensive disclosures by companies, non-reporting companies accounted for 5.3% of the total government revenue from oil and gas for 2018. One of the non-reporting companies, Anadarko, accounted for at least 3% of government extractive revenues, which represents a significant gap in the reconciliation of company payments and government revenues.

There are no in-kind revenues in mining. In oil and gas. The 2017-18 EITI Report discloses oil sales disaggregated by date, field, and per individual buying company, though not disaggregated by individual revenue stream. The report also provides volumes collected and volumes sold for both the state’s natural gas in-kind revenues as well as GNPC's equity natural gas revenues, albeit without disaggregation between the two.

The requirement on infrastructure provisions and barter arrangements is not applicable to Ghana.

No evidence that such revenues exist in Ghana. The requirement on transportation revenue is therefore not applicable to Ghana.

There were no material SOEs in mining in 2017-18. The 2017 - 18 EITI Reports indicate that GNPC’s transfer of proceed from oil and gas sales form part of SOE transactions, but furthermore does not identify other material transactions between SOEs, nor between SOEs and government. However, GNPC’s transfers to the PHF, which amounted to USD 814m in 2018, are reconciled, as are GNPC’s receipts of in-kind revenues from companies.

Subnational direct payments exist in the mining sector, and the 2014 EITI Report adequately explains direct payment of property rates by mining companies to District Assemblies.

The 2017 -18 mining and petroleum EITI Reports disaggregate financial data by company, central government agency and revenue stream. While Ghana has begun its efforts to consider project-level disclosures, as required for all fiscal years ending on or after 31 December 2018, EITI reporting to date at a project level has been partial.

The 2014 EITI Reports were published on 18 January 2016, about one year after the end of the financial year covered.

Aspects of the requirement have been adequately implemented: there is MSG oversight in the procurement of the IA and agreeing measures to ensure adequate data quality and assurances in accordance with the standard procedures endorsed by the EITI Board. However, there is no evidence to suggest an independent assessment of data reliability in the oil and gas EITI Report, which lacks a clear statement from the IA confirming the comprehensiveness and reliability of the overall data presented.

The 2014 EITI Report on mining gives a clearer picture of the distribution of revenue than the oil and gas report. The latter report contains much institutional detail and quantitative information on revenue flows but fails to pull this information together into a clear picture of the distribution of revenue, in particular of the streams channelled to/through the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

Subnational transfers are not applicable in the oil and gas sector. The 2017 -18 EITI report indicates applicable subnational transfers in the mining sector and discloses the statutory and actual distributions according to the formula for some regions. However, District Assemblies or other entities located in several regions are not reported for in terms of ground rent and mineral royalties, even if material companies did operate in the regions

The 2014 EITI Reports contain helpful information on Ghana’s budget and auditing process. Information on expenditures from extractive sector revenues is reported in considerable detail across some institutions, but could be more useful if it were complete and presented in a broader budgetary context.

The 2014 EITI Reports explain that there are no mandatory social expenditures in Ghana. The 2014 EITI Reports contain descriptions and some figures of voluntary corporate social responsibility projects by some companies, without being consistent and comprehensive across each sector.

The GHEITI Report confirm that no quasi-fiscal expenditures by SOEs occured in the mining sector in 2018. The 2017-2018 oil and gas report indicates that quasi-fiscal expenditures did not occur in 2017 and 2018. However, the inconsistency in information on QFEs provided in EITI Reports compared to other reliable source (such as PIAC and IFS) raises concerns on the comprehensiveness of QFE disclosures in GHEITI reporting.

The 2014 EITI Report includes, in absolute and relative terms, the contribution of the extractive industries to GDP, government revenue, exports and employment. The only small exception is information on key regions of non-gold production in the mining report.

Ghana EITI has made various efforts to ensure that EITI disclosures are actively promoted. Ghana EITI appears to maintain a high level of dissemination and outreach activities. Public events and roundtables have also been organised to discuss issues such as beneficial ownership, transfer pricing and artisanal and small-scale mining. Some stakeholders find that reports can be made more comprehensible to the public.

The EITI Reports are accessible in print and summarised formats. They are not machine readable, although key information is available from the Ghana EITI open data dashboard. The data is from the 2012/13 reports and do not include 2014 data.

The multi-stakeholder group has taken steps to act upon lessons learnt, to identify, investigate and address the causes of any discrepancies, and to develop and follow up on policy and sector relevant recommendations for improvements in the EITI Reports. Ghana EITI have implemented several of the recommendations to improve sector governance.

The annual progress report 2015 was submitted within the deadline and adequately reflects Ghana EITI’s main activities and progress made during 2015. The report and the completion of a formal impact assessment demonstrates openness to public scrutiny.