WHAT IS GOLDBOD NOT TELLING GHANAIANS? GOLDBOD’S SILENCE ON GOLD RECORDS IS A NATIONAL RED FLAG
The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), established under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140) to restore accountability and transform Ghana’s gold sector, is now at the centre of a scandal that threatens the very transparency and good governance the statute was designed to uphold. Section 42 of Act 1140 clearly mandates that GoldBod “shall publish every quarter on their website its operations, revenue accruing, contracts entered, expenditures and responsible sourcing and traceability.” This is not optional politics, it is the law of the land.
Despite this clear legal requirement and the high hopes that accompanied the Board’s creation, GoldBod has failed, repeatedly, to make these disclosures available. Months after the Board came into being in April 2025, Parliament’s own records show that no such mandated quarterly reports detailing contracts, procurement lists, export records or the companies from whom gold is bought are on the institution’s official website. For a statutory body with such a critical role in national revenue generation and FX stabilization, this is unacceptable.
Happening alongside this silence are eyebrow-raising public displays that distract from statutory duties: brand ambassador launches, vehicle donations, and PR events that appear to prioritise optics over statutory obligations. These activities, while not illegal in themselves, raise serious questions about focus and prioritization when critical transparency obligations under Act 1140 are being ignored.
This failure is not merely bureaucratic lag, it strikes at the public’s right to know. Ghanaians deserve to see the list of licensed miners and companies from whom GoldBod has bought gold, the volumes and values of exports, and the real accounting of how taxpayer-mandated funds are used. When lawyers resort to filing High Court mandamus applications to compel disclosure because GoldBod ignores formal Right to Information requests for more than six weeks, it signals a deeper governance breakdown.
Why is GoldBod so reluctant to publish these records? Is it fear of scrutiny? Is it an inability to compile accurate procurement and export data? Or is this resistance a symptom of misaligned leadership priorities under CEO Sammy Gyamfi? Whatever the cause, one thing is clear: the institution is flouting statutory transparency provisions at the expense of the Ghanaian people’s right to information.
The NPP has long championed transparency, accountability, and the rule of law in governance. This failure by GoldBod, coming under this NDC-led administration, threatens public trust and undermines the core objectives of Act 1140. If Ghana is to benefit fully from its gold resources and uphold its democratic tradition of openness, GoldBod must immediately publish all required data, or Parliament must act to enforce compliance with the law.
Nothing less than accountability for Ghanaians should be acceptable.
By: Mr Blessing Mantey
