In furtherance of the implementation of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (Act 815), the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) was inaugurated by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, on September 15, 2011.

The objectives of the PIAC are monitoring and evaluating compliance with the Act by the Government and other relevant institutions in the management and use of petroleum revenues; providing a platform for public debate on spending prospects of petroleum revenues in line with development priorities; and providing an independent assessment on the management and use of revenues.

To achieve its objectives, the Committee's major function is to consult widely on best practices related to the management and use of petroleum revenues. The reporting requirements of the PIAC include: Publishing a semi-annual report and an annual report by the 15th September and 15th March of each year. This will be posted on the Committee?s website, published in daily newspapers, delivered to Parliament and to the President; and hold public meetings at least twice each year to report on its mandate to the Ghanaian public.

The 13-member Committee is chaired by Major (Retd.) Daniel Sowa Ablorh-Quarcoo who represents the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana. When contacted to share his views on the performance of the PIAC so far, Major (Retd.) Ablorh-Quarcoo wanted the public to assess the Committee's work and pass their judgment rather than him remarking about its delivery.

He said the public could examine the first report of the PIAC and determine whether, given its resource constraints, the Committee was able to live up to expectation or not. The PIAC chair also asked the public to scrutinise the Committee's second report which is expected to be released later this year.

The representative of civil society and community-based organisations on the Committee is Mr Ishmael Edjekumhene, who is the Executive Director of Kumasi Institute of Technology, Energy and Environment (KITE). In an exclusive interview with the Resource Watch Agenda, Mr Edjekumhene was upbeat about the performance of the PIAC. I mean, to be honest, the committee has done exceptionally well against the background of lack of resources. I believe the commitment of members of the committee is unparalleled in this country.

Despite the success story of the PIAC, Mr Edjekumhene was forthright with the challenges confronting the PIAC. There are a lot of challenges we face because the work of the committee thrives on resources to be able to fulfill our mandate by collecting data and conducting research. We need a secretariat to operate from but we don't have one now. We need to get to the ground to ascertain the facts and figures. This is a big problem for the committee.

He said in spite of the challenges, the fact that the PIAC was able to prepare and publish its first report is a testimony of its ability to overcome the odds and perform as expected of it. The committee can only get better and we expect our second report to be better than the first. Given adequate resources, we should be able to do thorough analysis and serve the people of Ghana better.

Mr Franklin Ashiadey represents the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) on the Committee. Mr Ashiadey, in an interview, was emphatic: ?We have done our best so far. I think we have done well, and we are operating within our mandate. It is not for us to praise ourselves. The public should assess our performance for themselves. But I believe we are executing our mandate despite the resource constraints.