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Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) is asking the government to draw a long term National Development Plan for petroleum revenue utilization.

This according to the Committee will help with proper management of the petroleum revenue.

According to the Secretariat Coordinator, Mr. Isaac Dwamena, over the years, governments have been investing the revenue in priority areas like Agriculture, Education, Health and industrialization leaving some areas unattended to.

"Petroleum revenues have been used to tackle too many national problems at the same time, weakening the potential impacts of oil revenues on the socio- economic development of Ghana," he said.

Speaking to Hello FM's Prince Kwadwo Boadu during a media workshop on PIAC's Semi-Annual 2021 report at Abokobi in Accra, he revealed that since 2011 to 2020, Ghana has a cumulative oil proceeds of US$ 6.5 billion which means this money when invested in projects like airport can be used to build 19 times of Kotokoka International Airport, 70 times of Kwame Nkrumah Interchange and even assuming Ghana’s population was over 30 million, each Ghanaian could have received $USD 212.00.

These proceeds from the oil are disbursed to various funds as enshrined in the Petroleum Revenue Management Act.

The Committee charged the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to be more proactive with their duties though they admitted the corporation has been active with their operations but still need to be more enterprising.

The committee commended the government for undertaking projects like the KIA Terminal 3, Kojokrom-Tarkwa Railway, Enchi-Asankragua Road and Free SHS Programme.

However, he urged the government to diversify funding for the Free SHS due to the volatile nature of petroleum revenues.

The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) is an independent statutory body mandated to promote transparency and accountability in the management of petroleum revenues in Ghana.