The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has backed the Minority in Parliament’s demand for answers over GH¢22 billion losses linked to Ghana’s gold trading operations, insisting that the matter requires a full investigation.

NPP Deputy General Secretary Haruna Mohammed said the party believes the available reports point to GoldBod as the source of the costs and losses, despite the Ghana Gold Board’s position that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report did not directly attribute the losses to its operations.

Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story on Tuesday, August 25, Mr Mohammed said the relevant reports must be examined carefully to determine where the losses originated.

He argued that although the Bank of Ghana’s accounts may reflect the losses, the institution responsible for gold trading under the current legal framework is GoldBod.

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“Lawfully, in this country, now, as we sit, it is GoldBod that is in charge of buying and selling of golds. And those particular losses that have happened, whether accounting losses or transaction losses, is going to be related to the body that has been responsible for that.”

Mr Mohammed questioned why costs arising from gold trading activities should be reflected as a burden on the Bank of Ghana and called for clarity on how the losses were incurred.

“If such a cost has been occasioned, and per the laws and the guidelines that have been put in, the loss is attributed to the Bank of Ghana, but in each wise sense, somebody created the loss. So we should be interested in who created the loss.”

He said a closer examination of the Bank of Ghana’s records would provide information on the source and accumulation of the costs.

According to him, the NPP’s position is based on its interpretation of the available information, which it believes points to GoldBod.

“And when you go and read it very carefully, you realize that it is coming from GoldBod. And if it is coming from GoldBod, as citizens of Ghana, we have the right to question why such an institution is always running us into losses.”

Mr Mohammed said the Minority’s call for an investigation was therefore justified, adding that the NPP would fully support the parliamentary effort to establish what caused the losses.

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“We have the right to question. And that is why the Members of Parliament have questioned that. And the party is coming out to back the Members of Parliament in the fullest time for investigation to be conducted into that, so that we will be able to get to the bottom of the matter.”

GoldBod has maintained that the IMF report cited in the debate did not directly attribute the reported losses to the operations of the state-owned gold trading institution.

The NPP, however, insists that the relevant financial records should be examined to establish where the losses originated and who should be held responsible.