30 Days of Galamsey - My Hitherto Untold Story!

30 Days of Galamsey - The Hitherto Untold Story!

I have worked in Takoradi during the Jubilee Field Development Project Phase 1, where I led a team providing Port Operations and Supply Vessel Agency Services to various players. In fact I was in-charge of the vessel that exported Ghana's first oil. In December 2011, I left the job in Takoradi and took on a new and better paying job in Accra. I quit and left Takoradi after the demise, burial and final funeral rites of my beloved father and then started the new job on 3rd January 2012. I had hoped to use my return to the "Centre" to, among other things, explore further training opportunities and start a family. I managed to study for my MBA and started a family but I could not keep my job for more than 30 days. I do not have this experience on my CV but I share some glimpses here, which epitomizes the woes of principled professionals in a country without a state.

In my first week on the job, I got to know the company better, its existing staff and customers, and in-house processes and functions. I then began drawing up my plan of action on all areas of my responsibilities requiring process improvement, work-flow optimization, internal controls, financial and general management. Being a new fiscal year with changes in tax rates meant that I needed to also have PAYE and other payroll templates properly revised. I have become aware of the use of company equipment, being involved with plant hiring, for both mining and construction. As the manager of the company's assets and all income generating equipment, I had the responsibility to ensure their proper preventive and operational maintenance, keeping them secure and in the right custody always. I have also become aware that from time to time the company's equipment may be impounded (seized and or confiscated) by the BNI/ NIB (National Security) for suspicions of their involvement in or use for illegal mining (aka Galamsey), and that I am the man to ensure their release.

I have been told that our equipment are rented out to legal miners only, who have licenses, concessions and permits to mine in the places they do. I have remained the no non-sense functionary who will not pay lip-service to the principles of professionalism. I have always maintained that there are better accounting professionals than myself if we were only looking at certificates and career achievements, but there can only be one of me whose character and integrity is his only currency setting him apart from all others. I will not beg or bribe any officer who is acting legally except to use legal and administrative procedure to secure a fair outcome/ release. I am not oblivious of the Ghana I have grown up in by the way and I have been hated and loved in equal measure for my posture on matters of corruption.

I decided to take time away from the office in my second week on the job to visit some of the customers and sites where our equipment are deployed. I remember starting with some Accra based sites, where I visited places like Ada - on a sea defense project and other minor private construction sites. I then moved to the customers in the mines, where I have seen our machines in action, working on sites, excavating the earth to enable the customers/ miners find gold-bearing ore. From one site to the other, from Ashanti to the Eastern region, I saw first-hand, the levels of hard work and the devastation. I have seen some excavators abandoned in the ground and gradually being covered up by materials from new excavations and these included one of ours that I was to ascertain the possibility of recovering and repairing again. I have seen and held Gold in my palm, but I have seen the destruction of forests and cocoa farms, mining in or near streams and other water bodies, and the use of water from nearby sources to wash materials as part of the panning and Gold trapping process. Buildings and built up areas were not exempt, all terrains were in danger in the search for gold and the topography and contours of vast lands were being altered.

I have sought to see and obtain copies of relevant documents from our customers to assure myself that they are legal miners. I have been told that the documents are with the big bosses in Accra. I obtained the contact numbers of the persons who are able to provide the documents I wanted to see and back in Accra, I have made contact to pursue my quest. My demands intensified in the 3rd week with no success. One of these persons came to the office one afternoon, not to submit the documents I requested but to deliver bunches of plantain to the Chairman of the company's board of directors from his trip. I have had meetings with the sales team, tasking them to work harder at winning new clients, preferably in construction or in legitimate and legal mining so that we can retrieve our equipment from the illegal miners and re-assign them. This appeared to be an unpopular suggestion to both management and the sales team, who have become comfortable doing virtually nothing except to mark the days of usage by the "miners" and report same as weekly sales. I was able to tell by the end of week 3 that I was in for a hell of a time with my intentions, while procurement of spares, repairs and maintenance of equipment was also done in ways that my internal control procedures were beginning to affect some vested interests.

In the fourth week, I switched more to personal decision mode as I continued to gauge body language, actions and inactions on my suggestions, which by now had gone to management. I see there was no way management wants income from the miners to be tampered with. It was clear that they would prefer paying bribes to have machines released whenever they are impounded periodically. I simply could not be the one making the payments, or the one to receive plantains. By Monday 30th January 2012, I had tendered my resignation letter which I prepared and printed the Friday before the start of the weekend. There are many who have worked there longer before I got there and who have stayed on beyond me. These can say their jobs were secured so no sweat over what else Galamsey means to the nation, others have seen an opportunity to gain career promotion to the positions/ roles that my resignation and other vertical movements created. I dare say that just as most companies will see opportunities to grow by backward or forward integration, I will not be surprised if the said company has become a mining company or gold exporter, etc in addition to having a larger fleet of equipment for renting to other miners.

Fast forward, we are in October 2024 and we have made "progress" on the levels of devastation threatening our very existence as a people, but we like our jobs and forex, innit? State machinery is unable to identify organisations (big or small) with valid mining licenses or concessions that are being used for mining illegally? There are calls for wholesale ban on "small scale mining", but I would expect the state to do better than that, be more meticulous and diligent in identifying crime and criminals, in supporting law abiding operators and ensuring that no one (licensed or not, big or small, local or foreign, national or multinational) is able to benefit from the destruction of our lands, forests and rivers, etc. There also calls for the seizure and destruction of machines and equipment used to denigrate our lands, but I would expect the state to be able to take custody of these machines for the benefit of government projects and public works in the numerous assemblies - all of which need but lack such equipment. After all, I know many district assemblies have a need for some of these machines everyday if our untarred neighborhood roads are to promote economic activity by helping with swift movement while the highways take forever to construct. But again, there are no angels at the assemblies and there's need for serious monitoring by "national security" to ensure central government is not empowering crooks in the assemblies to use these machines for personal gain anywhere. There are even calls, recently for the revocation, repeal or replacement of our newest law regulating the industry (LI 2462), but in the meantime no evil is seen, heard or spoken under the existing laws? Hhmm! Laws don't enforce themselves, people and institutions do, so are we to also replace the people and agencies which have been incompetent in enforcement?

The Ghana Police is supposed to be everywhere in Ghana to maintain law and order, prevent crime and ensure crimes are investigated and culprits punished. The president is the custodian of all mineral resources in Ghana and has sworn to protect and apply them to the benefit of all citizens. Is the president doing a good job? Has the waters of G'za or Ukr'ne been polluted like we see in Ghana? Are we not confronted with a bigger war than we fought on behalf of colonial thieves back in the days? Is the Ghana Army incapable of collaborating with the police to deal with blatant illegalities which appear to be an attack on our country? Is it because "small scale" mining now gives us more forex than Cocoa and employs many more people than any government can provide jobs for which is why the PMMC, Lands, Water Resources and Forestry Commissions, Customs and Immigration, etc are all unable to check and prevent any of the processes that led to our current predicament as a nation? How are the various chemicals used brought into the country? How are the huge excavators, "shangfan machines" and even ammunition cleared into the country and taken through our various towns (with police road blocks everywhere) into the forests? If only there's no way Gold leaves the country without a trace, if only the miners do not get away with any breaches of the responsibilities of their licenses, if only state machinery is effective, no one will dare try to poison us. We had it all in view but couldn't manage it, we decided to take it deeper into the forests and closer to the water bodies and now this is what we have on land, so imagine what the offshore oil production scenario will be like.

I am unable to answer questions from my children even now, and not sure what they or their children will say about my generation. Will it be same as I think of our forefathers in the days of slavery, where I believe "Koo Darkie" was sad that "Obroni" has abolished the trade? I guess there will be more than enough forex to buy chemicals and machinery and to fund required training of scientists, researchers and medics, water treatment, land reclamation and re-afforestation, to cure or treat the cancers and deformities resulting from mercury and other heavy metals in water that we all drink today, and maybe to bring back some lives, etc. Or that the jobs created by today's mining activities will last as long as the effects of the land and water pollution will stay with the "good" people of Ghana? If national security is not saving us, our "national stupidity" will kill us!

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Thomas Kwashie Attopley