For the past three years, following the publication of the ‘Galamsey Fraud” documentary, the author, Anas Aremeyaw Anas had failed to substantiate his corruption allegation against the Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Charles Bissue. Mr. Aremeyaw Anas alleged the IMCIM Secretary took bribes and granted ORR Resources Limited, a free pass to engage in illegal mining.
With his narratives, Anas managed to create an odd impression about a money exchange between an unidentified person and Mr. Bissue, an effect that got some Ghanaians to believe the latter was corrupt. Well, that’s what he normally does- get his operatives to hand over money to their targets and take video recordings just to confirm his preconceived narrative.
Two questions remain unanswered, and on several counts, Mr. Aremeyaw Anas had always avoided them.
The first of it is that no evidence was produced of Mr. Bissue negotiating or demanding the payment of any money to allow ORR Resources to embark on any mining activity (in this case illegal mining). The footage only showed Mr. Bissue receiving some documentation supposedly belonging to ORR Resources, and later directing the unidentified operative of Anas to process payment and take receipts for an Environmental Permit, and fee for mapping his concession. This was simply the standard requirement and process for all small miners who wanted to resume operations when the ban on small-scale mining is lifted.
The second and most important aspect of the interrogation of Anas’ work is the failure to provide evidence of the outcome of whatever negotiations (which in this case did not happen) he had with Mr. Bissue. In this case, there should be proof of ORR Resources having engaged in illegal mining following the alleged bribery, or the issuance of a clearance note granting or certifying it to resume mining. This never was fulfilled by Anas.
How then does he prove that Mr. Bissue compromised the process and granted ORR Resources a free pass to engage in illegal mining?
From Anas’ narrative, the company was supposed to have its documentation vetted as part of the regularization process for small-scale miners. This was captured in the published “roadmap for the lifting of the ban on illegal mining.”
But there is something pretty interesting here. The deadline for the submission of documents was September 7, 2018. The vetting exercise was completed before the lifting of the ban in December
2018. Intelligence as gathered, reveals that the entire engagement between Mr. Bissue and the
“fake representative” of ORR Resources was in January 2019.
By that time, geometric engineers and surveyors were undertaking a field mapping of all concessions in mining districts in Ghana.
ORR Resources thus was late in submitting its application for vetting and regularization. This late application was the basis for the payment of GHC3,000.00 for the mapping of their concession. Receipts were issued to that effect. However, given the losses registered small miners suffered during the period of the ban; for example expiration of licenses, permits, and other capital losses, a decision was taken to grant an exception for late submission to be considered.
It was for this reason, Mr. Bissue requested his staff fast-track the application, but more importantly, as he stated, that ORR Resource was likely to miss the opportunity to have its concession mapped by the geometric engineers and surveyors is the application delays. So then, how could Anas fault Mr. Bissue for this? In which part as they claim, constitutes a compromise on the process for personal gain?
Another crucial factor that Anas failed to disclose in dealing with Mr. Bissue is the identity of the “Chairman” who allegedly offered a “Christmas gift” through Anas’ operative. This part has been the most contentious as Anas had failed to dispute the claim by Mr. Bissue that the Chairman in question was Chairman Wontumi, and the money was even handed over to him by the latter’s assistant Andy. The counter-statement as made by Mr. Bissue [persistently] is that he had expected a donation from the Chairman for a party activity in the Western Region, and did not consider it to be an inducement. A publication by the New Crusading Guide provides a transcription of what Andy allegedly said to Mr. Bissue about the money.
“Also this is one of Chairman’s boys”, Andy introduces Tiger to Bissiw in their first meeting. He continued. “there’s this work that they are doing for him but there are having some issues with their license, so Chairman asked me to come and see you so that you will help resolve it for him.
So we won’t waste much of your time and Chairman also asked us to bring to you your Christmas gift” Andy hands over the license to Charles which he gladly collects without delay.”
This section is completely altered in the very video documentary published.
Should you carefully analyze the context and the narrative via the counter-argument made by Mr. Bissue, you will realise that Anas got it all wrong. Just as argued by Rita Karikari- Prempeh a former colleague of Anas Aremeyaw Anas, in the early years of the documentary, the latter could have done better by “unearthing real acts of corruption” and not “just taking shots of people taking money from him”.
In the meantime, Mr. Bissue has dared Anas to publish the second part of the galamsey fraud which the latter advertised after the first broadcast. Will Anas accept the challenge?
