They were pleased with how officials have been able to account for every penny that has been accrued from the oil proceeds from 2011 to 2015.

The workshop was to bring to the understanding of the citizenry, how the proceeds from the oil funds have been expended, how much we have accrued from it since its first exploration and how best to use the proceeds to the benefits of all Ghanaians in the future.

Officials from Public Interest Account Committee (PIAC), explained that PIAC is a citizens-led statutory body established under section 51 of the petroleum Revenue Management Act (Act 815) to provide additional non-parliamentary and independent oversight over the collection and utilization of Ghana's petroleum revenues.

They explained to participants how they were formed, what they seek to do, their role in the management of petroleum revenues and most especially how the revenues have been expended.

Officials also revealed that since the first lifting in December 2010, a total of 161,797,171 barrels of oil have been lifted of which $3, 251, 83,000 have been gained. The highest amount gained was in 2014 where the nation gained $396,172,902 in 2015 which was due to the least fall in oil prices worldwide.
In 2011, the oil fetched us $444, 124, 724, $541, 623, 741 in 2012 and $546,767,184 in 2013.

The revenues have been segmented into four main fund namely, the ABFA, Ghana Heritage Fund, GSF and Ghana National Petroleum Company.

So far a total of GH?2,995,757,256 ($1.428 billion) have been sunk into the ABFA of which ?329,392,159 has gone into agriculture modernization ?1,531,157,925 into road and infrastructure, ?860,239,783 into amortization and ?274,967,389 into capacity building.

However, participants reiterated that government should ensure that citizenry get to know more of the use of petroleum revenue accordingly.

They said most often when government want to embezzle funds they turn to capacity building. Officials were therefore appealed to scrutinize government in that regards.

Some of the proceeds have also gone to energy. A total of (?281,061,182) have gone into energy, ?70,214,567 into education, ?105,066 into transport, ?26,992,236 into security, ?2,649,741 into health and ?38,969,647 into other expenses.

Participants were grateful to the committee and urged them on to make themselves visible and audible and seek to ensure that the laws of the land will enable them to prosecute government officials and appointees who they deem to have embezzle funds from the oil.