The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has revealed its intention to scrutinise several policies of the current government, should it win the upcoming December 7 election.

Among these is the Gold-for-Oil (G4O) programme, which NDC flagbearer John Mahama’s spokesperson on the economy, Isaac Adongo, has identified as a key area of concern.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express, Adongo accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer of deceiving Ghanaians by pledging to expand the G4O programme, despite the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advising the government to discontinue it.

“IMF says, transit from this arrangement, don’t do it again. Then you come and deceive us that you want to expand it,” Adongo remarked.

The G4O initiative was introduced by government as a strategic measure to stabilise fuel prices and reduce reliance on foreign oil markets.

The programme involves using gold purchased in cedis to secure oil imports, with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) supplying the acquired oil to the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) for distribution.

Despite its intended benefits, the programme has faced allegations of mismanagement and corruption, with critics pointing to a lack of transparency and questions over the awarding of contracts and the actual benefits achieved.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who recently defended the G4O programme, argued that it has been crucial in preventing the collapse of Ghana’s economy.

He claimed that the policy has helped reduce fuel prices at the pumps and enabled the local purchase of ¢5 billion worth of gold, ensuring a stable supply of fuel commodities.

“Without the gold purchase program and the gold-for-oil programme, this economy would have collapsed,” Bawumia stated.

However, John Mahama has vowed to launch a thorough investigation into what he describes as the NPP government’s “opaque” Gold-for-Oil programme.

“We will investigate NPP’s opaque Gold for Oil programme,” Mahama said.

Echoing Mahama’s sentiments, Adongo added, “We are not only stopping it, we are investigating it. It is part of our manifesto promise. The Auditor-General says that they did not find any agreement covering the Gold for Oil arrangement.

"What it means is that you have people who just go to Bank of Ghana, take gold, they go to buy oil, whether they bring the oil or not we don’t know. We don’t have any guarantee that if something goes bad, we’ll get our money back.

"And you think that we should continue with this scam, this loot and share. We will investigate it. And there’s no way Gold for Oil will last one day.”