A political activist, Dr Arthur Kennedy, has suggested a parliamentary hearing into the allegations of the Prof Frimpong-Boateng-IMCIM ‘galamsey’ report instead of a CID investigation as directed by the president.

He was speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show which was monitored by Ghanaweb.

To him, calling for a parliamentary hearing will give way for an intentional look into how best small-scale mining can be done without harming the environment.

“I think that this discussion we are having, it should be taking place in terms of parliamentary hearing so that we know what has been done, we know what hasn’t been done, we know the state of our laws, we update it,” he said.

Making reference to Mali and Venezuela as countries who also engage in small scale mining, Dr Authur stressed that a robust legal system and accountability are the only ways to win the fight against illegal mining.

“We have to have a rigorous legal regime, we have to hold people accountable for breaking the law, you can’t do it with a situation where you have in inter-ministerial committee trying to stop the illegal mining and then you have the lands and mineral resources [commission] and others, giving people permits to, in effect, undermine the very fight the government itself claims to be committed to,” he added.

Dr Authur stated that the Police CID is too compromised to be allowed to investigate and produce a non-biased report on allegations made in the report.

“I do not trust the CID to properly investigate this. I think that they are comprised and too beholding to the government. And the investigation should not be just to assign blame, it is to look at how we can make small scale mining legal, environmentally sound and beneficial to our country,” he said.

Background:
The Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana described as mere hearsay the allegations made by the former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and Chairperson of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.

According to the Presidency, the document authored by the former minister is not backed with evidence, despite the various allegations implicating government officials as being involved in illegal mining or interfering in the fight against same.

The report was submitted to the Chief of Staff in March 2021 and contained details of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng's challenges as chairperson of the erstwhile committee against illegal mining.

However, the presidency said in the rejoinder, "The document being discussed was not an official report formally delivered to the Office of the President. On the contrary, it can only be rightly referred to as a catalogue of personal grievances and claims made by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, intended to respond to some issues he faced as Chairperson of the IMCIM.

NW/DA