Statement: Chamber Of Mines Concerned With Results But …

The Chamber of Mines Wednesday commended the Ghana Environmental Protection Agency’s new AKOBEN programme as a positive mechanism to evaluate and disclose environmental and social performance. The Chamber agrees with the comments of the Executive Director of the EPA at the launch that the system is not perfect and is pleased that, going forward, the AKOBEN system will itself be undergoing continuous improvement in collaboration with the private sector. The Chamber notes and is concerned that many of its member companies obtained low ratings in some categories. Some of this relates to the ‘growing pains’ of the AKOBEN system. In its current form, the Chamber believes the AKOBEN audit does not give a true representation of our members’ performance. Dr Joyce Aryee, Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Mines, affirmed “the Chamber of Mines looks forward to working with the EPA and other partners on improving the AKOBEN system and ratings of all our members through continuous improvement of our environmental performance. We will continue to be guided by the conditions of our approved environmental permits and making the system work for companies, communities, government and the environment.” All of our member companies are in the process of reviewing their AKOBEN reports and will be engaging with the EPA on corrective actions where appropriate. Dr Aryee reiterated that “our member companies are committed to sustainable continuous improvement and will work to improve our monitoring proficiency and our overall environmental and social performance.”