Dr. Kojo Appiah-Kubi, a ranking member of the Parliamentary sub Committee on Poverty Reduction on has appealed to district assemblies and traditional authorities in mining communities to utilize royalties from mining companies for development projects that would benefit the people.
He said the misappropriation and misapplication of such royalties would not only affect the livelihoods of the people but discourage mining companies from implementing their social responsibility programmes.
Dr. Appiah-Kubi, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Atwima Kwanwoma, made the appeal when the committee paid a familiarization visit to the plant site of the Ahafo Project of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited (NGGL) at Kenyasi in the Asutifi district.
The committee also held separate meetings with the Kenyasi Number One and Kenyasi Number Two traditional councils as well as members of the District Assembly.
Dr. Appiah-Kubi explained that the 45 percent and 55 percent of royalties allocated to traditional rulers and district assemblies respectively by mining companies were meant for both infrastructural and human resource development in the affected communities.
Mr. Kofi Humado, Chairman of the committee and MP for Anlo, explained that the committee was tasked to implement specific interventions that would reduce poverty among the people.
He said even though development was a primary responsibility of the government, private-public partnership would help in facilitating the pace of accelerated national development.
Mr. Humado called for effective collaboration between the assembly and the traditional rulers so they could initiate projects that would bring remarkable improvement in the lives of the people.
He said pollution, environmental degradation and excessive noise were some of the adverse effects of mining and appealed to Newmont to adhere to its social responsibility programmes to safeguard the health of the people in its operational areas.
The committee chairman noted that galamsey operations had become a social canker in mining communities and gave the assurance that the committee would put the issue before Parliament and initiate policies to help bring it under control.
Mr. Chris Anderson, External Affairs Director, African Region of NGGL, gave the assurance that the mining company was determined and prepared to enhance the livelihood of the affected communities in the Ahafo mine.
In line with this, he said, a number of programmes such as the Livelihood Enhancement; Land Access; and Livelihood Re-establishment had been implemented by the company.
Mr. Anderson refuted media reports that the company was mining in some forests saying, "NGGL cherishes conserving forests and wildlife in the countries it operates."
He disclosed that the mining company had executed a number of projects such as a police transit quarters at Kenyasi, a school block for Dokyikrom and presented equipment for some health centres in the communities.
Mr. Anderson added that NGGL had also awarded contracts valued at 15 million dollars to local companies.
He took the committee through the mining process and later led them to visit the company's tailing dams, reclamation areas, the Apensu pit and some resettlement camps.