The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has denied that it spent GHS10 million on conferences and dialogues in the battle against galamsey, as claimed by Tamale North MP Alhassan Suhuyini.
During the last meeting of Parliament on Tuesday, the MP questioned how helpful these talks and conferences had been in the struggle, notwithstanding his charges.
The accusation is untrue and has no factual foundation, according to a statement made by the Ministry's Public Relations Unit.
According to the statement, the costs include not only conferences and debates, but also policies and programs such as the creation of a Monitoring and Evaluation Team, as well as a Situation Room, to receive allegations of unlawful mining and respond quickly.
The funds will also be used to launch the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Program (NAELP) and the Small Scale Miners Award Scheme, both of which will encourage ethical mining.
Redesigning Community Mining Schemes, establishing Small Scale Mining Committees in various mining regions around the nation, funding the Minerals Commission, and introducing the mercury-free gold katcha to process gold are among the other initiatives.
The National Dialogue on Small Scale Mining was held in response to President Nana Akufo-demand Addo's for a shared non-partisan approach to combat the issue, according to the statement.
Although the original idea was for conversations to take place in each of the 16 areas, the Ministry opted to aggregate the regions and have zonal talks to save money.
One for the forest zone was conducted in Kumasi, while the other for the savannah zone was held in Tamale.
In addition to these discussions, the Ministry went on a working trip to all of the regions and engaged stakeholders in the battle against galamsey, according to the statement.