The Third World Network (TWN), an advocacy group, on Thursday called on Parliament to delay the process of passing into law the Aluminium Authority and Integrated Aluminium Industry Bill in order to ensure full public participation in the process.
The Bill seeks to establish an Aluminium Authority to deal with the regulatory aspect of alumina production in the country.
Under the proposed Bill, the Aluminium Authority would have the power to undertake the evaluation of applications and to make grants in respect of bauxite rights.
However, speaking at a press briefing in Accra, Dr Yao Graham, Coordinator of TWN, said establishing an institution solely for bauxite was likely to bring confusion between it and the Minerals Commission in terms of oversight functions.
"We find it difficult to understand why bauxite alone would be isolated for such prominence when there is no history of deficiencies in the current institutional arrangement," he said.
Dr Graham said the establishment of the authority was "a recipe for corruption and potentially unaccountable public institution," since the Authority would hold both final regulatory authority and commercial functions in relation to bauxite.
Also, decisions of the Authority may be exempted from the ratification power of Parliament.
Dr Graham said TWN was concerned about the manner in which government and Parliament were proceeding with the passage of the Bill without paying attention to its implications on national development and policymaking in the minerals sector.
He said in the face of apparent uncertainties and potential institutional confusion likely to be introduced by the Bill, both the constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee, Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament were making frantic effort to discuss the Bill.
Dr Graham said the timing for the discussion of the Bill was not good, especially considering the heat of the elections, because most parliamentarians would be on the field campaigning for their candidates.
In addition, they would be ill-prepared to deliberate on such an important Bill, Dr Graham, saying that the uncertainty surrounding the sale of government's 70 per cent shares in VALCO pointed to the importance of due diligence.
"We believe that these are important issues which must require deliberation and democratic consultation before government and Parliament proceed on the Bill," Dr Graham added.