{"id":711323,"date":"2019-09-27T07:21:05","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T07:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2019\/09\/27\/baba-jamal-supports-govt-takeover-of-akwatia-diamond-mine\/"},"modified":"2019-09-27T07:21:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T07:21:05","slug":"baba-jamal-supports-govt-takeover-of-akwatia-diamond-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/09\/27\/baba-jamal-supports-govt-takeover-of-akwatia-diamond-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Baba Jamal support’s govt takeover of Akwatia diamond mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

Former Member of Parliament for Akwatia, Baba Jamal has commended
\ngovernment for its decision to take
\nover the Great Consolidated Diamonds, formerly Ghana Consolidated
\nDiamond Limited (GCDL) from the JOSPONG Group of Companies.<\/p>\n

According to him, the move was timely to save state asset which he accused management of the defunct diamond company of selling them off as scraps.<\/p>\n

Government,
\n over the weekend, announced the take over of the GCDL, the country\u2019s
\nonly commercial diamond company which owns the Akwatia Diamond Mines
\nthat has produced more than a 100 million carats of diamond since its
\ninception of commercial operations in 1924.<\/p>\n

This came to light
\nwhen the Acting Director-General of State Interest and Governance
\nAuthority (SIGA), Stephen Asamoah Boateng and his entourage toured the
\ncompany to have first-hand information on activities there.<\/p>\n

Background
<\/strong>
The
\n GCDL was closed almost a decade ago when Sapper and Associates, who had
\n won the rights to operate the mine, failed to inject the necessary
\nfunds.<\/p>\n

This resulted in the then NDC government, which came to power in 2009, opening bids for the operations of \u00a0the GCDL. A Ghanaian-owned company won the bid in 2011 ahead of international firms that had shown interest, and renamed it Great Consolidated Diamonds (GCD).<\/p>\n

However, the Company, after winning the bid, failed to fulfill the contract obligations, thus prompting the current administration under SIGA, to use the Mining Law Clause (13) which stipulated that when such a thing occurred, government should take back the company and manage it.<\/p>\n

Government, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, subsequently abrogated the contract accusing the company of failing to fulfill its core mandate to enhance production.<\/p>\n

Mr Asamoah Boateng later appointed a nine-member
\ninterim management committee made up of experts from the fields of law,
\nmining, surveying, finance and security, to steer the affairs of the
\ncompany.<\/p>\n

\u201cIllegal\u2026& Regrettable\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But
\n the management of JOSPONG Group which acquired the GCDL (and changed it
\n to GCD) through the Ghana Government Diverstiture Implementation
\nCommittee (DIC) in June 2011, described the shutdown over contract
\nbreaches as unlawful. <\/p>\n

According to the company, the reasons for
\ngovernment\u2019s actions are a misrepresentation of the agreed terms between
\n the two parties.<\/p>\n

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the company said the action by the State Interest and Governance Authority was \u201cillegal, unconstitutional and regrettable in a nation that is governed by the tenets of democracy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe emphasize our position that the conduct of SIGA amounts to total disregard for rule of law and good governance<\/em>,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n

Core Mandate Failed!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Commenting on Okay FM<\/strong>\u2019s Ade Akye Abia<\/em>
\n Morning Show, Hon. Baba Jamal insisted that even though Great
\nConsolidated Diamonds went through the bidding to win the company
\ngenuinely, the agreed plans upon which the Akwatia Mines were given out
\nwere not followed to the latter.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially as part of the contract, the company had to give $17 million fiscal cash to the government and also in the agreed proposal with the government; the company had to invest $100 million over 5 years into the business. It was to create 50,000 indirect jobs and 5,000 direct jobs and all these are parts of the proposal\u201d, he disclosed.<\/p>\n

The former MP, who was one-time Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, however, admitted that though the new owners of diamond mine did pump some monies in its operations, it was paltry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat Consolidated Diamonds instead of giving $17 million dollars to the government for over 5 years rather gave Ghc20 million Cedis for them to renovate the various buildings in the company including the Club Houses. In fact, the company built the assembly of the Denkyembour District. Beyond the Ghc20 million, I think the necessary investment did not happen and mining is not like other businesses which you will start gradually because mining needs heavy investment. If you don\u2019t pump money into mining, it will collapse\u201d, he stated.<\/p>\n

Scraps? I Support Govt\u2019s Decision<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hon
\n Baba Jamal, who expressed his tacit support for government\u2019s decision
\nto take over the diamond company, further revealed\u00a0that\u00a0the management
\nof Great Consolidated Diamonds started selling parts of some equipment
\nas scraps instead of pumping money into the business; a situation which
\ncompelled him to even call a stakeholders meeting in 2014 as a Member of
\n Parliament to remind them (the JOSPONG Group) of their responsibilities
\n as captured in the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sold the company to the investor to make it work and if you are not able to transform it, you don\u2019t have to sell state properties\u2026he invested some money but to be honest, I don\u2019t think that the required investment capital was injected into it\u2026I don\u2019t think he followed the plans enshrined in the agreement upon which they won the bid to take over the company and if they had done that, its operations would not have grinded to a halt leading to its current sorry state\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government has taken over the operations of the diamond company, I have no problem with it because I think that it is not right and proper for them to sell them off as scraps and\u2026give out part of the company\u2019s concession to small scale miners when the real deal in the contract has not been met,\u201d Baba Jamal stated.<\/p>\n

Source: Peacefmonline.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Member of Parliament for Akwatia, Baba Jamal has commended government for its decision to take over the Great Consolidated Diamonds, formerly Ghana Consolidated Diamond Limited (GCDL) from the JOSPONG Group of Companies. According to him, the move was timely to save state asset which he accused management of the defunct diamond company of selling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":711324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-711323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nBaba Jamal support's govt takeover of Akwatia diamond mine - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/09\/27\/baba-jamal-supports-govt-takeover-of-akwatia-diamond-mine\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Baba Jamal support's govt takeover of Akwatia diamond mine - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Former Member of Parliament for Akwatia, Baba Jamal has commended government for its decision to take over the Great Consolidated Diamonds, formerly Ghana Consolidated Diamond Limited (GCDL) from the JOSPONG Group of Companies. 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