The Deputy National Director of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, has criticised the government’s response to the JoyNews Hotline Documentary exposé implicating some district assemblies in mining communities allegedly collecting fees from operators of banned mining equipment, a practice described as a “galamsey tax” system.

According to him, the government should have acted more decisively and promptly to deal with the alleged complicity of local government structures in illegal mining.

Speaking on JoyNews’ National Dialogue on Illegal Mining on Thursday, February 12, Mr Bosu criticised the government’s pace of response, arguing that the seriousness of the revelations required swift and firm action.

“I think that the government should have been more decisive and prompt in terms of action, rather than taking all this time before acting,” he added.

Mr Bosu described the situation as deeply troubling, warning that the actions of some district assemblies represent a direct challenge to national efforts to fight illegal mining.

“I think what we are seeing is a clear case of local government really saying that every instruction, every procedure, every action the state is taking to deal with galamsey does not concern them. They are going to push it at their local level,” he said.

He explained that the alleged collection of fees and issuance of stickers by district assemblies to operators of banned mining equipment amounts to a direct assault on national anti-galamsey efforts.

“For me, it’s an affront on national action today with galamsey, and this is very troubling. I even call for further investigation beyond this particular district assembly.

"It could be that there’s a deep-seated, systematic problem where the assemblies themselves are facilitating galamsey, which is clearly against the laws of the land, particularly Act 995,” he stated.

Mr Bosu said that while the public has long known about the involvement of individuals in facilitating illegal mining through the movement of excavators, fuel supply, and logistics, the alleged institutional involvement of district assemblies marks a dangerous escalation.

“We know that certain individuals on the ground have for a long time been facilitating the movement of excavators, the supply of fuel and other logistics. But to this extent, where the district assemblies themselves give stickers to enable illegal actions, this is clearly not acceptable.”