Ghana MPs Attend Three-Day Training on Extractive Industry Oversight

On October 20, Revenue Watch began a three-day technical workshop for Ghanaian legislators in Sogakope, Ghana, in partnership with German nonprofit GTZ and the Parliamentary Centre. The workshop, which followed shortly after Revenue Watch's pilot regional training hub in Ghana this July, drew members of Ghana's parliament and their staff to gain expertise about the oil and gas industry in Ghana—an emerging oil "hot spot" after significant recent discoveries—as well as to manage expectations about what impact the new oil finds will actually have on the country's development.

The leaders attending represented Ghana's key financial oversight committees and the several bodies that govern the extractive industries: the Committee on Mines and Energy, which oversees the oil and gas sector; the Public Accounts Committee, which serves as key "watchdog" for spending; the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development, whose responsibilities include royalties for communities in mining areas; the Lands & Forestry Committee; and the Finance Committee, with its exclusive scrutiny function over all agreements and contracts.

This training marked the launch of a two-year Revenue Watch project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It will continue with a focus on parliamentary capacity-building in Tanzania and a third regional location in the near future. Technical experts serving as teachers and resources for the attendees included Dr. Keith Myers, a partner with Richmond Energy Partners Ltd., Dr. Thomas Akabzaa, head of the Department for Geology at the University of Ghana, and Professor Joe Amoako-Tuffour, a tax expert attached to the Ministry of Finance.

The Parliamentary Centre, a Canadian nonprofit devoted to improving the effectiveness of representative assemblies around the world, has worked with the Parliament of Ghana in capacity-building efforts on governance since 1994, initially through support to its Finance and Public Accounts Committees in such areas as macro-economic policy, procedures involved in national budget making and financial accountability measures. However, as Ghana's Parliament gained capacity, the workshops became settings to examine specific policy issues and develop committee strategies. With support from Revenue Watch, the current training takes this targeted support a step further, equipping parliamentarians with specialized tools to help them in their oversight role in Ghana's extractive sector.

RWI Director of Training and Capacity Building Vanessa Herringshaw explained that discussions of laws, resource levels and projections were particularly relevant because Ghana is preparing legislation on its new oil and gas sector in the wake of significant oil finds in 2007. The legislation will cover everything from the fiscal rules and social and economic regulations to the long term role of oil in Ghana's development. Revenue Watch was particularly delighted, Herringshaw said, to be partnering with the Parliamentary Centre, an organization that is well-established in Ghana, and is planning new projects in oil and mining there and in other countries.

"Members of parliament can emerge from this training better equipped to ask the right questions," Herringshaw said. "It's a pivotal point in Ghana's development because of the enormous financial contributions the oil sector could make to the country's development, if managed well. Parliamentarians have a key role to play, but despite that role designing the legislation that will direct oil management, they haven't had as much focus on this subject as on other sectors."

Ghana's Parliament has long concentrated mainly on lawmaking, with limited attention to parliament's role ensuring good governance, financial control and oversight of the executive. However, Ghana's parliamentarians have also demonstrated innovative approaches to outreach,  opening non-formal channels of communication to invite civil society input and incorporate outside recommendations. Suitably equipping MPs for Ghana's fast-changing resource landscape can deepen this approach and help parliamentarians keep tighter reins on the transparent, accountable and prudent management of extractives sector revenues.

Over the next two years, RWI will partner with the Parliamentary Centre to work on improving the management and use of extractive resources. The aim is to ensure that MPs are equipped with the necessary specialized tools for effective oversight of extractives resources.  The support from the Gates Foundation for the legislative component of the project will not only attempt to build the technical skills of legislators but also to enhance communication and collaboration between legislators, civil society and the executive on extractive development issues.

LEARN MORE

• Avoiding the "Resource Curse" through Multi-Stakeholder Action: Focused Case Study from the Parliamentary Centre Training (pdf)
• What Difference Will Oil Make? An Analyst Considers Ghana's Oil Boom
• Ghana MPs, Journalists Attend Workshop on Oil Industry (Ghana Business News)
• Revenue Watch Pilots "Regional Hub" for Capacity Building
• Can Ghana Avoid the Oil Curse?
• The Parliamentary Centre in Ghana
• GTZ