Some concerned members of the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners are calling for the immediate resignation of their executives.
In a press statement, the members accused the executives of running the association without considering the welfare of the small-scale miners since their election four years ago.
In the press statement, the miners accused the leaders of failing to account to the association members, failing to adhere to the constitutional provisions in the administration of the association’s affairs and exploitation for personal gains.
The leaders were again accused of “allocating 30 out of 90 concessions designated for national distribution to certain executives, gross disregard for the general membership, exhibiting unprecedented levels of greed and ineffective leadership disintegrating the association”.
The members were of the opinion that the behaviour of the executives had stagnated the growth of the small-scale miners association.
“How can you move forward if you are unable to meet to discuss plans or even review plans that have been discussed to shape your actions? We are, therefore, by this statement, demanding the immediate removal of our executives to step aside for an interim team to take over to reorganise the association”.
“With these leaders, our quest to have a sanitised and united front to deal with the challenges our association faces, especially with illegal miners who do not belong to us, will be a fight in vain,” the statement read.
The small-scale miners called on the Minerals Commission to intervene and issued a two-week ultimatum.
The members have pledged to take further steps if the request to remove the executives does not take effect at any moment from now.
“We as a group should be leading the fight against illegal mining, but if we do not have accountable leaders, this fight will be lost. We will take further steps if our call for emergency elections to remove our current executives is not adhered to in two weeks,” they added.
Read the full statement below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS STATEMENT ON THE REMOVAL OF GNASSM EXECUTIVES
Good day, members of the media. This statement is coming from concerned members of the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners about how our association is being run by our executives.
Leadership is bestowed on people to help in pushing the agenda and welfare of the members of a group.
However, for us in the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners, our leaders seem to have a mind of their own since their election into office 4 years ago.
As members, we have observed the following since the executives came into office;
1. Lack of accountability.
2. Failure to adhere to the constitutional provisions in the administration of the association’s affairs.
3. Exploiting the rank and file for personal gain.
4. Allocating 30 out of 90 concessions designated for national distribution to certain executives.
5. Gross disregard for the general membership.
6. Exhibiting unprecedented levels of greed.
7. Ineffective leadership resulting in the disintegration of the association.
As members, we feel these things we have observed above, are the cause of the stagnated growth of the association.
How can you move forward if you are unable to meet to discuss plans or even review plans that have been discussed in order to shape your actions?
We are therefore by this statement demanding the immediate removal of our executives to step aside for an interim team to take over to reorganise the association.
With these leaders, our quest to have a sanitized and united front to deal with the challenges our association faces especially with illegal miners who do not belong to us, will be a fight in vain.
We call on the Minerals Commission to intervene as a matter of urgency to ensure we have a leadership that is ready to work with all licensed miners.
We as a group should be leading the fight against illegal mining but if we do not have accountable leaders, this fight will be lost.
We will take further steps if our call for emergency elections to remove our current executives is not adhered to in two weeks.