Economist, Patrick Asuming, says the $214 million loss recorded under the Gold Board should prompt reforms rather than calls for the programme to be abandoned.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Midday News on Tuesday, December 30, Prof. Asuming said, although such losses should ordinarily not occur, especially at a time when global gold prices are at historic highs, they appear to stem from deliberate policy choices aimed at curbing gold smuggling.

Prof. Asuming stressed that the International Monetary Fund’s report highlighting these losses should not be interpreted as a call to scrap the programme.

“I think the appropriate response should be about how we deal with these losses. People should not take it to the extreme and assume that once this criticism or these losses have been reported, it means anyone is calling for the programme to be scrapped. That is not the case," he stated.

He argued that the real policy debate should focus on how to minimise the losses and determine which institution should bear them, rather than disputing their existence.

The programme, as we have been told, brings in reserves, and that is a benefit. However, there is a cost to it. The key questions should be: how do we minimise this cost, and who should bear it?

"That is where the discussion ought to be, rather than the kind of reaction we are seeing, which suggests that those involved may not want to confront the real issue.”

His comments follow the back-and-forth between the Minority and Majority caucuses in Parliament over claims that the GoldBod incurred a $214 million loss in gold trading within nine months of this year.

While the Minority Caucus insists the losses are real, the Chairman of Parliament’s Economic and Development Committee, Eric Afful, has accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of deliberately making such allegations to undermine Ghana’s recent economic gains.

Other sections of the public have also called for the programme to be scrapped.