Some of us, to be quite honest, share in the sentiments of the Alliance For Accountable Governance(AFAG) over the huge and somewhat extraneous expenses of President Mahama’s brainchild, the Gold Board, and therefore rightly calling for the urgent forensic audit of the Board’s 2025 financial accounts.

Apparently AFAG reports that , ‘ the GoldBod’s 2025 financial disclosures show total expenditure of GH¢78.68 million, with several expenditure items involving multi-million-cedi allocations’.

AFAG further discloses that ‘GH¢14.29 million spent on task force deployment, GH¢3.98 million on entertainment and events, GH¢3.39 million on travelling costs, over GH8 million on legal fees, and GH¢5.26 million on special intervention programme expenses’ (Citi newsroom, 27/08/2026).

According to the International Monetary Fund(IMF), Ghana has, unfortunately, lost an unpronounceable GH22billion, arose from the trading activities of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme being administered by the Central Bank of Ghana and the Gold Board, which could have completed the all-important Accra to Kumasi road, a number of Agenda 111 hospitals would have benefited, and some unemployed Nurses and Teachers would have found themselves in the public service.

Apparently, the Central Bank of Ghana and the Gold Board joyously entered into trading(buy and sell) agreement.

The Central Bank of Ghana allegedly gave the Gold Board a staggering $11.7billion(GH133billion) with the sole aim of purchasing gold on its behalf.

It is important to stress that the Gold Board was doing the buying and the Central Bank of Ghana was doing the selling of the gold.

We are, in fact, made to understand that the trading losses resulted from the service charges, discounts, the high cost of buying the gold, among others.

According to the International Monetary Fund(IMF), the gold purchased by the Gold Board was the most expensive in the sub-region.

Suffice it to say, the Central Bank of Ghana and the Gold Board were buying and selling, and therefore by purchasing expensive gold from the small scale miners, it was always going to be somewhat insurmountable for the Central Bank of Ghana to retain the initial capital, let alone make profit

Clearly, therefore, the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme being administered by the aforesaid entities is problematic and full of loopholes susceptible to serious exploitation.

My dear reader, let me crave your indulgence just a moment longer and pose: where on planet earth, do serious, committed, and forward-thinking traders deliberately buy exorbitant products and sell on low prices, and expect to retain their capital, let alone make profit?

We can, therefore, conclude with no uncertainty that the whooping $1.7billion losses, were, in fact, resulted from the troubling marriage between the Central Bank of Ghana and the Gold Board.

After all, trading is not just the selling role played by the Central Bank of Ghana, it includes the buying role carried out by the Gold Board.

Since regaining the independence from the British on 6^th March 1957, Ghana has, regrettably, been losing billions of cedis to some irresponsible and rapacious public servants through sheer carelessness and cloudy deals.

Unfortunately, the unpatriotic and selfish attitudes of some men and women we often put in responsible positions have cost this nation dearly.

Let us face it, the vast majority of our public servants are remorseless spendthrifts. If that were not the case, how come they have wilfully wasted our resources and continue to spend profligately to the detriment of the poor Ghanaians?

My dear reader, just take a look at our political landscape and you would agree with me that some of our politicians harbour vested interests and have no empathy whatsoever.

Given the circumstances, some of us, as a matter of solicitude and unwavering affection for our nation, cannot help but to support the pertinent calls by the AFAG for the powers that be to scrutinise the Gold Board’s behemoth expenditures.

K. Badu, UK.
[email protected]