The Office of the President has rubbished claims made by former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, and Chairperson of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, in a report on illegal small scale mining also known as galamsey in Ghana.

Claims in the report according to the Presidency are a catalogue of grievances of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng and could best be described as hearsay.

The Presidency also tagged the document as not being an official report before Cabinet as it was submitted in an informal way.

“At the outset, it must be pointed out that the document being discussed was not an official report formally delivered to the Office of the President. On the contrary, it can only be rightly referred to as a catalogue of personal grievances and claims made by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, intended to respond to some issues he faced as Chairperson of the IMCIM.”

“The document was handed to the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President on March 19th 2021, in an informal meeting, where Prof. Frimpong-Boateng complained about public attacks and criticisms made about his tenure as Chairperson of the IMCIM”.

The report authored in March 2021 and handed over to the Chief of Staff mentioned dozens of persons in the Akufo-Addo government accused of either being engaged in galamsey or interfered in the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.

Almost all the persons mentioned in the report have rejected any wrongdoing.

The Presidency in a rejoinder argued that despite the serious allegations Prof. Frimpong-Boateng made against some government appointees, not a single piece of evidence was adduced or presented to enable the claims to be properly investigated.

“Indeed, the allegations contained in the document are at best hearsay.”

The Presidency insisted that President Nana Akufo-Addo’s commitment to fighting illegal mining is unassailable, and the Office of the President welcomes any information on illegal mining activities which provides a credible basis for investigations to be conducted by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service.