KOFI BENTIL OP-ED: Oil Revenues Commission: How Ghana Can Avoid The Resource Curse

The policy analyst and senior fellow for IMANI: Center for Policy & Education, a pro-free-market think-tank in Accra, Ghana, writes: "Ghanaians have been rejoicing over the country’s oil find. However, many are aware that finding oil can actually lead a country into trouble, a phenomenon called 'Resource Curse'. Many including this writer have been wondering how we can avoid the resource curse. It is my view that a major requirement for avoiding the resource curse will be to set aside politicians in the control of oil money. We must also ensure that the places from where the oil is drilled get a clear advantage in the distribution of the resulting wealth. This is informed by our experiences in mining other minerals, usually the indigenes suffer most and other parts of the country seem to benefit more. The negative effect on the environment and health of the drilling sources must be alleviated by directing more of the resources there. There must also be a conscious effort to make the people benefit more from their lands' wealth for their own sake, for equity’s sake and for the national interest."

Mr. Bentil continues his commentary about Ghana's oil: "We must fashion a mechanism by which the banking and application of oil money will be as transparent as possible and subject to as much public control and scrutiny as possible. The problem is how. Fortunately there are a few ideas already in place in other countries which may help, but before specifics I would like to build the structure and then figure out the whole picture. The structure must be based in law. A law which stipulates that all revenues from oil be deposited in a particular account, my guess would be that the Bank of Ghana will be the best place for this account. This law must also stipulate clearly the circumstances under which such monies will be withdrawn, this leads us to the next level, a body to control that fund. The law must set up a body of imminent Ghanaians to be appointed through various means which could look like the following:

— they must be drawn from each of the ten regions of Ghana.

— two people must be appointed by the President, to ensure that office has representation.

— two more people must be from the region or district from where the oil is drilled.

That makes a total of 14 persons. The last one I leave to others to suggest. An odd number of persons is good, to ensure there will always be a winner in case of a vote. I propose that this body sits four times a year, every quarter to make decisions and review projects and proposals. It will need a permanent secretariat to process things."

More: "The law must prescribe that this body shall govern the use of all oil revenues and they alone shall determine which projects and where will be accepted and how the oil revenue shall be spent. They shall operate under this law and shall not depart from its provisions. If they depart from it, any citizen should be able to sue in a High Court to compel them to obey the law and reverse any decision which is against the law. Such an arrangement allows for broad participation in the use of oil wealth and the members will have to weigh options before coming to decisions, they can be lobbied by citizens and politicians alike. They can receive proposals for various projects and decide on the merit of each. The law must however make some provisions in favour of the places where the oil is drilled, for example, not less than a 10% (or as decided) of the total revenues should be spent in the drilling towns. Set up a scholarship scheme whose aim should be to provide education to the indigenes as a way to raise their expertise and levels of awareness to enable them manage the complexities of their areas better than otherwise. Such provisions will help the whole nation to avoid the situation in the Niger delta of Nigeria where the indigenes are sabotaging the oil installations because they have been neglected in the distribution of oil wealth."