Friday , March 29 2024

We’ve not defaulted, gov’t rather owes us $20M – Manganese Company

Managers of Ghana Manganese Company have described as inaccurate and inconsistent, the government’s claims that the company failed to fulfill its financial obligations, which have resulted in over $300 million loss of revenue to the state.

The company is, however, charging the government and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), to fulfill their obligation of paying back an amount of $20million refund due them between December 2018 to June 2019.

Describing it as a shock, Chief Operations Officer of the troubled company, Benjamin Stay Quashie, said the closure and mere thought of losing ones the job, is causing psychological trauma among the over 1,500 workers, whose fate hung in the balance following the closure.

Sometime in January, the Ghana Manganese Company Limited was directed to halt its mining operations to enable the state to undertake a thorough financial audit of its operations.

Subsequently, the Ministry agreed with the company that the audit could be carried out while mining operations are ongoing.

After the preliminary audit, it came to light that the state was incurring huge losses through the operation of the company.

The audit also revealed that the company failed to pay additional royalty of $12.8 million. It had also defaulted in additional corporate taxes to the tune of $79 million and a $6.1 million loss of dividends declared, hence government’s directive for the closure of the company.

But the company says it has not defaulted and wants the government to come clean.

 

A meeting is expected between the government of Ghana and managers of GMC at the Jubilee House on Friday, to settle the matter.

Source : myjoyonline.com

Check Also

Legalize our operations or we’ll boycott 2024 elections – Okada Riders

The Okada Riders Association of Ghana has threatened to boycott the 2024 general elections if …