The Ghana Chamber of Mines has welcomed government’s quest to undertake special audits of the operations of mining firms in the country.
According to the Chamber, if the special audits are what will see an increase in revenue then its members are ready for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) any day.
The Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta during the mid-year budget presentation said the government would audit multinational firms including those in the mining sector as part of tax compliance measures to increase revenues.
But in an interview with Joy Business Chief Executive of the Chamber of Mines Sulemanu Koney said, even though the process can be strenuous, they are open to it because they have nothing to hide.
“Naturally when this is done so many times from different angles its becomes quiet burdening. But our members will completely collaborate.
“Sometimes we are just supervised at the extent of the audit, the GRA itself will do special audits, they have the normal audit, there is the third party audit, you have the EITI audit, you also have the payments do and so there are several audits that take place and sometimes fatigue sets in,” he said.
Mr Koney argued that apart from the strenuous nature of auditing which puts pressure on the companies finance team there was really nothing for the GRA as the companies have been very open with the revenue collector and all other auditing firms mandated to perform the function.
He further stated that “remember that you need to devote resources for these audits, making sure that, they have competent guys who will have to help them get all the right information they need for the audit.
But as I said the industry would collaborate with the GRA, it’s just that sometimes it gets to the point it becomes burdening and if government believes that that is the way it can get a lot more revenue from the mining industry why not they are welcomed.”
Also, the Ghana Mine Workers Union has welcomed government’s quest to undertake special audits of the operations of mining firms in the country.
According to the Union, even though it believes the government will not find anything, if the special audits are what will see an increase in revenue then the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) should go ahead.
The General Secretary of the Ghana Mine Workers Union Prince William Ankrah in an interview insisted that government is right to probe the mining sector further for additional revenue.
