In 2017, government, led by President Nana Akufo Addo, took pragmatic steps to clean the mining sector. It established the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM). Its mandate is to sanitize and curb illegal mining activities in mining communities across the country.

The committee has undertaken a lot of sensitization activities in various mining communities on the impact of illegal mining. After a year of comprehensive work, the Committee completed the roadmap that will regulate the activities of the small scale miners and guide their operation. Small scale and artisanal miners would have to follow due process before engaging in any mining activity. Despite these efforts, there’ve been allegations of ongoing corruption in the process. 

Based on this, I led my team at Tiger Eye to verify the truthfulness or otherwise of these allegations. After one full month of work, we found security officials and responsible members of the IMCIM flouting due process and engaging in corrupt activities for selfish gain. Here are our findings.