The Ghana EITI multi stakeholder's steering committee has been urged to request the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands to make public disclosures of royalty disbursements to traditional authorities in mining communities to enhance citizens' demand for transparency and accountability in the use of these resources.

The call was made at an evaluation workshop of a mining revenue and expenditure tracking project sponsored by the KASA initiative and implemented by the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and Publish What You Pay (PWYP) -Ghana.

Community groups drawn from Western, Eastern, Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo mining enclaves of Ghana shared lessons, experiences and challenges encountered during the tracking exercise which lasted 6 months. Dominant among the challenges was the lack of cooperation of traditional authorities of some mining enclaves in providing information on how much royalties have been received over the period under review and how these have been spent.

The attitude of some of the chiefs, according to the participants does not bode well for the efficient use of royalties. They argue that the communities' interest would be best served if the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands were to disclose royalty payments to beneficiary communities, as the communities can then use the information received to demand accountability.

Two chiefs from Boduesango and Brofoyeduro were cited by the Obuasi Monitoring Team as having demonstrated good-will and commitment to the course of transparency and accountability in the use of mining revenues.

Some challenges encountered by the tracking teams from the various regions include: lack of cooperation on the part of some mining companies namely Anglogold Ashanti , Newmont, Prestea Bogoso Mines, Golden Star Resources, GoldFields Ghana Limited, and the Ghana Manganese Company Limited. It did not appear, according to the tracking teams that the official endorsement of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the public pronouncements on commitment of the head offices of these companies have filtered through to their operational locations.

Other challenges include delays on the part of some district assemblies and in some instances, their unwillingness to provide the requested information.

Participants also observed that as a result of the EITI implementation in Ghana, and also as a result of communities demand for accountability in the use of mineral royalties, some district assemblies in Ahafo and Ashanti mining enclaves have taken the initiative to label mineral royalty-financed projects in the districts. There are also reports of increased participation of community members in decision around the use of mineral royalties through what is described as social responsibility forums.

The Obuasi Tracking Team informed the gathering of an initiative of chiefs drawn from the Adansi Traditional Council to construct additional residential and classroom facilities for the Fomena Nursing Training School using their share of mineral royalty.

The Mining Revenue Tracking Project was initiated in response to the 2007 Ghana EITI audit report revelations of poor quality spending of mining revenues, especially at the district and community levels, and is planned to be sustained with funding from the Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme (G-RAP) and the Revenue Watch Institute.