Home NEWS BoG responds to PAC on $41 million bauxite export

BoG responds to PAC on $41 million bauxite export

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has responded to queries by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on the $41 million bauxite export said to have not been captured in its audited report for 2015.

According to the BoG, the proceeds from the export of bauxite in 2015 of US$41.05million was captured in the Statement of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payments of the bank as part of non-traditional exports in the Schedule of Earnings of Dealer Commercial Banks in Table 17 of the first half report and Table 18 of the second half report.

The PAC at its first sitting this year on Tuesday raised issues with the BoG over its failure to capture a transaction involving the export of more than 40,000 tonnes of bauxite by the Ghana Export Company Limited in its audited accounts for 2015.

The committee, chaired by Mr James Klutse Avedzi, consequently directed the central bank to furnish the PAC with the report for them to scrutinise the audited accounts of some state institutions for the 2015 fiscal year.

The PAC was considering the report of the Auditor General on the statement of foreign exchange receipts payable to the BoG for the half year ended June 30, 2015, and December 31, 2015.

During the sitting, the Member for Efutu, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, drew the committee’s attention to the anomaly, and said he knew for a fact that more than 40,000 tonnes of bauxite valued at $41 million were exported in 2015 and yet it was not captured by the audited report of the central bank.

The Second Deputy Governor of the BoG, Dr Johnson Asiama, who led a team of directors from the bank to the PAC, assured the committee that he would make the detailed report involving the export of the bauxite available on Wednesday.

Read also: $41 Million bauxite export not captured in audit report of BoG

In the response, a copy of which has been seen by Graphic Online, the BoG explaindc that: “As stated in paragraph three of both reports, repatriation through the commercial banks do not constitute receipts in foreign currency that increase the reserve of the country as managed by Bank of Ghana.  That explains why the proceeds from bauxite exports were not captured as part of Bank of Ghana’s foreign exchange receipts and payments reports.”

It added: “From the foregoing it is evident that the issue relating to the US$41.05m proceeds of bauxite has indeed been accounted for in the 2015 Statements of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payments report.”

“The Bank of Ghana can also confirm that total bauxite export volume and value for 2015 was captured in the Balance of Payments statistics, just as in all other years before and after,” it concluded.

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