Story by: Paul Mensah Nsor
Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) (PIAC) has warned that declining oil production and falling international oil prices threaten Ghana’s revenue base and the government’s flagship infrastructure programme, urging immediate measures to attract investment and ensure transparency in petroleum revenue management.
Speaking at the launch of the 2025 annual report, PIAC chairman Richard Ellinah said the combination of lower production and weak global oil prices reduces government receipts that fund major projects. “Since we cannot control international oil prices, what we can do as a country is ramp up production,” Ellinah said, calling for pragmatic government action to both attract new exploration and production investment and to incentivize existing operators to boost output.
Ellinah raised legal and transparency concerns over the handling of reported petroleum revenues, citing a dispute involving the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and a GNPC subsidiary formed after a buyback of partner shares. He said GNPC a wholly state-owned company created Jubilee Oil Holding Limited and that under the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) any revenues accruing to a state-owned entity must be remitted into the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF). PIAC contends that roughly $530 million linked to the transaction has not been lodged in the PHF, which, the committee says, would be a breach of the law.
“The refusal to lodge the $530‑something million into the PHF constitutes a breach of the law,” Ellinah said, urging government to call GNPC to order and to ensure legal compliance.
PIAC reiterated calls for greater transparency in the use of Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) resources, noting that recent legal amendments have concentrated 95% of ABFA allocations into an infrastructure push led by projects such as the Accra–Kumasi expressway. With ABFA now largely channeled to big infrastructure, PIAC wants detailed disclosures contract awardees, contract terms, and segmented lot breakdowns—so it can inspect and monitor implementation and inform the public.
Ellinah also questioned ongoing government transfers to a special purpose vehicle (SPV) established by the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, noting the fund was removed as a named beneficiary in recent PRMA amendments. That, he said, raises legal, political and corruption risks.
On addressing production declines, Richard Ellinah recommended both attracting new exploration and moving discovered fields into commercial production, stressing that discoveries alone are insufficient without development to the production stage. Ellinah also urged the government to address technical and fiscal disincentives that have driven some operators away or stalled investment citing outdated industry data, unitization challenges, royalty and tax concerns and to streamline conditions to retain and encourage existing investors.
The launch produced several calls to action: require GNPC to remit the disputed funds to the PHF; demand full government transparency on ABFA-funded infrastructure contracts and lot segmentation; and implement measures to increase sector production, including renewed exploration, commercialisation of discoveries, updated data provision, and resolution of technical and fiscal obstacles for operators.
Richard Ellinah said it will continue monitoring developments and seek compliance with the PRMA to safeguard revenues intended for national development.
Prof. Henry Kwasi Prempeh, Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), called on Parliament and civil society to strengthen accountability mechanisms during the launch of the Petroleum Income Accountability Committee (PIAC) 2025 Annual Report.
Speaking at the Launch, Prof. Prempeh recalled his early commentary on Ghana’s oil discovery and highlighted PIAC’s pioneering role as a civil-society-led watchdog. He praised the establishment of PIAC as a significant institutional innovation that helped ensure public scrutiny of oil revenues and expenditures, noting the body’s survival and continued reporting now in its 29th statutory report as an achievement worth celebrating.
Prof. Prempeh also sounded a cautionary note about the fragility of Ghana’s democratic gains. He warned that political polarization and winner-takes-all tendencies could leave PIAC vulnerable, since it is established by statute rather than enshrined in the constitution. He urged Parliament to treat PIAC reports with the same seriousness accorded to the Auditor-General’s reports debating findings and acting on recommendations to ensure follow-through and accountability.
Highlighting the broader implications of resource management, Prof. Prempeh proposed expanding PIAC’s mandate beyond oil and gas to cover other natural resources such as gold and emerging critical minerals. He called on professional bodies, civil society organizations and the media to amplify PIAC’s findings, educate the public and sustain pressure on authorities to implement reforms.
