Celina Della Croce: How multinational corporations steal the vast majority of Ghana’s natural wealth every year
Every
year, the vast majority of Ghana’s natural wealth is stolen. The country is
among the largest exporters of gold in the world, yet—according to a study by the Bank of Ghana—less
than 1.7 percent of global returns from its gold make their way back to the
Ghanaian government. This means that the remaining 98.3 percent is
managed by outside entities—mainly multinational corporations, who keep the
lion’s share of the profits. In other words, of the US$5.2
billion of gold produced from 1990 to 2002, the government received
only US$87.3 million in corporate income taxes and royalty payments.
The
dominant discourse propagated by institutions like the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) that control the levers of global finance blames the bad governance
of local officials for the consequences of this plunder, citing corruption
scandals as the main reason for a lack of resources. However, the discourse
around bad governance—the idea that corrupt local officials are to blame for
endemic poverty, low health indicators, education, and other measures of
national well-being—focuses on what happens with the 1.7 percent of the returns
that Ghana receives. Sarah Bracking points
out that “the company would argue that the market value of output is not
synonymous with their surplus, or profits, as working capital, wages,
depreciation of machines and so forth must be paid from this.
However, the
figures do act as a good illustration of the low returns to the sovereign
owners of sub-soil resources, as a proportion of their final market value,
which, in Africa, can be estimated as typically in the region of between three
and five percent, but which in this case is lower (about 1.7 per cent).”
Holding officials accountable for their use of public funds should be a given,
but what about the remaining 98.3 percent of the returns generated by Ghana’s
gold exports?.. read more:
https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/heres-how-multinational-corporations-steal-the-vast-majority-of-ghanas-natural-wealth-every-year/