The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has thrown a direct challenge to the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, daring him to invoke parliamentary oversight mechanisms to summon him for questioning rather than resorting to press conferences to propagate what he describes as falsehoods against GoldBod.
Addressing a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, Gyamfi questioned why the Minority Leader would address the media within the precincts of Parliament the previous day without using the chamber's established accountability tools.
"I'm waiting with bated breath for Afenyo-Markin's invitation. I don't know why he's delaying and holding press conferences when, as Minority Leader, he can get the Public Accounts Committee to summon me tomorrow or today, and I will appear," Gyamfi said.
He added that he had already reached out to the new Majority Leader, James Agalga, to facilitate such an invitation if the Minority Leader continued to delay.
Gyamfi said the Minority Leader had waged a sustained, relentless campaign of falsehoods against GoldBod over the past months, with Tuesday's press conference marking what he called a reckless crescendo in a deliberate attempt to mislead the public. "Afenyo-Markin's modus operandi, which can no longer be allowed to go unanswered, is to repeat the same tired falsehoods as often as possible and on as many platforms as he can, in the hope that repetition will somehow transform fiction into facts and mislead unsuspecting members of the public," he said.
He presented copies of GoldBod's Audited Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2025, prepared and published by the Auditor-General, as evidence that the institution did not record losses. The report showed an operational surplus of GH¢907 million and an overall surplus of GH¢5.4 billion. He stressed that the Auditor-General's report contained not a single adverse finding against GoldBod, contradicting claims of procurement breaches or violations of the Public Financial Management Act.
Gyamfi also rejected the Minority's argument that GoldBod is responsible for losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, as referenced in an IMF report. He challenged Afenyo-Markin to point to any portion of the report where GoldBod is accused of causing the Bank of Ghana's losses, saying the IMF attributed the $1.7 billion loss to the significant scaling up of the programme and exchange rate differentials, not to GoldBod's operations.
He explained that GoldBod's role in 2025 was merely a continuation of the PMMC's inherited buying agent role under a September 2023 Gold Purchase Agreement with the Bank of Ghana, with the institution having no role in determining selling prices or signing off take agreements. He also questioned how GoldBod could be blamed for losses in 2025 when the Bank of Ghana recorded a $400 million loss under the same programme in 2024, a year when GoldBod did not exist. "If we are to accept his argument that losses under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme are attributable to buying agents, then is Afenyo-Markin saying that buying agents in 2024 caused the loss of $400 million?" he asked.
Gyamfi further dismissed claims that fees paid to GoldBod contributed to the losses, noting that the assay fee of 0.258 per cent and service fee of 0.5 per cent together made up less than one per cent of the 17 per cent loss reported by the IMF. He said both fees are legitimate charges for services rendered, the assay fee approved by Parliament under the Fees and Charges Act, and the service fee explicitly provided for in the September 2023 Gold Purchase Agreement to cover logistics, transport, insurance, security and smelting losses.
He challenged the logic of blaming an agent for losses incurred by a principal, likening it to blaming licensed buying companies for losses recorded by Cocoa Board. "Where in the world is one body corporate blamed for accounting losses incurred by another independent, separate and distinct body corporate without any evidentiary basis?" he asked.
Gyamfi reiterated his readiness to appear before any parliamentary committee to address the matter, urging the Minority Leader to take up the invitation rather than continuing his media campaign.
