Sitsofe Mensah, a Technology Policy Expert and Associate at IMANI Africa, has called for swift statutory sanctions and executive action against the leadership of the Minerals Commission and Lands Commission over a persistent statutory reporting blackout that violates national financial management frameworks.
The demand highlights an escalating accountability deficit within Ghana’s primary natural resource regulators, where key administrative bodies routinely fail to publish mandatory statutory reports and audited performance accounts.
According to the expert, this opaque conduct breaches fundamental provisions outlined in the Public Financial Management Act (Act 921) and the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) Act (Act 990).
The news maker emphasized that allowing such high-profile regulatory entities to operate in total financial darkness undermines public faith in public sector oversight, while setting a dangerous precedent for corporate governance across the country’s extractive industry.
“The Ministry of Finance has the statutory leverage under the PFM Act and the Commitment Authorisation framework to suspend budget disbursements. The Presidency has the constitutional power to dismiss defaulting boards. If the custodians of the earth refuse to open their ledger, the state must ask whether it is time to change the custodians.”
Sitsofe Mensah,
The policy expert emphasized that the ongoing failure to produce audited baselines severely compromises the state’s capacity to measure performance or gauge the efficacy of critical institutional reforms.
While the Lands Commission continues to promote extensive land title digitization and the Minerals Commission oversees structural reforms in mining lease approvals alongside Community Development Agreements, the absence of public financial disclosures makes objective verification impossible.
Mr. Mensah warned that substituting verified auditing with polished public relations campaigns creates an environment where mismanagement remains hidden from citizens and civil society oversight.
Consequently, the call for punitive measures seeks to enforce mandatory compliance, ensuring that state institutions managing finite mineral wealth and landed assets remain subject to public scrutiny rather than claiming informal immunity from national laws.
Institutional Insulation and Corporate Governance Deficits
In Analyzing the operational culture within these institutions, Mr. Mensah criticized the entrenched culture of “institutional insulation” that permits regulatory leadership to treat binding national statutes as optional guidelines.
This pattern reflects an underlying administrative trend where high-value state organs claim “a de facto immunity from the accountability frameworks imposed on everyone else,” thereby creating a severe accountability gap.
Public policy reformists maintain that regulatory bodies cannot establish moral authority over private industry players when their own internal management disregards basic legal obligations.
The situation highlights a systemic breakdown where regulatory autonomy has morphed into administrative opacity, shielding executive officers and sector heads from necessary legislative and public evaluation.
Addressing the core leadership responsibility, the analysis raises direct questions regarding the governing boards assigned to safeguard public assets.
The Minerals Commission Board, chaired by Amb. William Ntow Boahene, and the Lands Commission Board, led by Prof. Anthony Owusu-Ansah and Surv. Dr. Wordsworth Odame Larbi, bear explicit fiduciary obligations to uphold statutory compliance.
Presiding over a continuous reporting blackout represents a direct dereliction of this fiduciary duty, compromising institutional integrity.
Board members are legally appointed to enforce corporate governance standards; failing to insist on audited financial reporting renders their regulatory leadership ineffective and exposes public assets to operational risks.
Extractive Sector Resets Demands Audited Baselines
The operational necessity for strict disclosure standards becomes particularly urgent as Ghana undertakes comprehensive legislative and structural overhauls across its extractive industry.
The state is currently rolling out the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) under Act 1140, a landmark initiative designed to formalize artisanal small-scale trading, suppress gold smuggling networks, and optimize foreign exchange reserves.
However, policy experts stress that these sectoral resets are ultimately “meaningless if foundational regulators cannot be audited” in a transparent manner.
Establishing new regulatory frameworks while existing supervisory bodies remain un-audited risks duplicating administrative loopholes, undermining national attempts to secure maximum economic yields from precious mineral deposits.
To rectify this operational opacity, the state must transition from passive performance tracking to rigorous, data-driven governance evaluations.
Evaluating the financial returns of land digitization, assessing the real impacts of revised mineral royalty distribution, and verifying the effectiveness of localized community development frameworks require verified empirical data.
Without an audited baseline, public policy evaluations remain speculative, allowing inefficiencies to persist uncorrected.
Enforcing statutory sanctions under Act 921 including the withholding of budget allocations and board removals serves as an essential prerequisite for restoring regulatory accountability and protecting public resources.
Enforcing Statutory Penalties to Safeguard National Resources
The call-to-action highlights statutory remedies available to state executive authorities to ensure compliance.
The Ministry of Finance possesses clear authority under the Commitment Authorisation framework to halt operational disbursements to non-compliant state agencies.
Concurrently, executive power resting with the Presidency enables the immediate dissolution of non-performing boards that fail to uphold legal reporting standards.
Implementing these constitutional mechanisms is critical to demonstrate that statutory compliance is non-negotiable across state enterprises, reinforcing public trust and establishing robust oversight across Ghana’s mineral and land administration systems.
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