“Lawyer Sues GoldBod Over RTI Breach—Court Asked to Compel Full Gold Deal Disclosure
Eric Dawda, a lawyer, has filed a mandamus application with the High Court to force the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) to make public all the details of its multi-billion-cedi gold buying operations. This is because the board allegedly did not respond to a Right to Information (RTI) request and a petition to the RTI Commission. Dawda said, “I sent a request for information to Goldbod, but they didn’t respond.” I asked the Right to Information Commission to help me, but they haven’t done anything about it yet. So, I ask the Court to tell Goldbod to answer questions about buying gold from miners. The lawsuit asks for information such as “the name of the miner or company, license number, date(s) of transaction(s), volume of gold sold and location,” as well as “any internal or public policy documents, guidelines, or official directives,” to find out if GoldBod is making the industry more formal or accidentally allowing unregulated flows. Dawda’s application also asks for “particulars of gold exported” and “control mechanisms regarding finance,” which are important for economic stability because GoldBod uses blockchain for traceability. The move strengthens the RTI Act (Act 989) and makes sure that GoldBod’s “sole and exclusive mandate” under Act 1140 is balanced with public accountability. This lets civil society and industry analysts keep an eye on the environmental impact, stop illegal mining proceeds, and protect the rights of licensed miners.
