Agyapa Deal Is Not Transparent, Ato Forson.

A former Deputy Finance Minister has accused the Akufo-Addo government of hiding essential documents related to the Agyapa Minerals Royalty deal from the public.

Cassiel Ato Forson told Samson Lardy Anyenini on NewsFile that the prospectus that highlights the viability of the Agyapa Minerals Limited deal has been withheld from Parliament.

The Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency MP stated that although Parliament particularly the Minority has requested for the document several times, Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta on all occasions declined to present the document.

This, for the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee shows that “there is something that this government definitely wants to hide.”

“We needed to find out from the Minister of Finance what the prospectus is because investors as we know are not ‘Santa Claus’ they are in there for a business.

“So we need to know the amount the investors are going to make? We need to know the terms in the prospectus but till date we do not know what the prospectus contains. We [NDC Minority] were told that some prospectus is in place but they [government] cannot share with Members of Parliament,” he said.

He then quizzed, “Which sort of arrangement is this? You are going to list but here is the case, we [MPs] do not have the prospectus then how do you expect us to perform the oversight on the deal.”

The Agyapa Royalties deal

Parliament on August 14, approved the controversial Agyapa Mineral Royalty Limited agreement with the government of Ghana despite a walkout by the Minority.

Two years ago, the house passed the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act 2018 which establishes the Fund to manage the equity interests of Ghana in mining companies, and receive royalties on behalf of government.

The purpose of the fund is to manage and invest these royalties and revenue from equities for higher returns for the benefit of the country.

The law allows the fund to establish Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to use for the appropriate investments.

Last month, government introduced an amendment to the act to ensure that the SPVs have unfettered independence.