A community-based human rights and environmental mining advocacy organisation is demanding firm enforcement action against public officials alleged to be extracting unlawful payments from illegal mining operations in the Ashanti Region.
Wacam was responding to recent investigative reporting by JoyNews Hotline Documentary titled, A tax for Galamsey: The extortion racket fueling illegal mining, which highlights allegations of extortion, unlawful and protection payments linked to illegal and irresponsible mining activities in the Amansie Central District. The documentary attributes these alleged payments to public officials and persons exercising public authority within local governance and enforcement structures, who are reported to extract payments in exchange for tolerance, protection or non-interference with illegal and irresponsible mining activities.
A statement issued by Wacam on 10th February, 2026 and signed by its Technical Director, Kwaku Afari, said irresponsible mining remained one of the gravest threats to Ghana’s water bodies, farmlands and livelihoods.
For the past three decades illegal, small and large scale mining activities have negatively affected communities particularly farmers, women and youth who have borne the human, environmental and economic costs of mining. The suggestion that unlawful payments extracted from illegal and irresponsible mining activities could be justified as revenue at any level of governance is deeply troubling and demands urgent public clarification and accountability.
“Any payments extracted from illegal mining activities however they are described or justified are themselves unlawful and cannot legitimately accrue to the benefit of the State or any public institution,” the statement said. “
According to the statement, the documentary’s findings are particularly troubling because they suggest that public officials embedded within local governance are implicated in these alleged practices.
These public officials are instead reported to be extracting payments in exchange for non-enforcement. This reflects a serious breakdown of governance in mining communities and a reversal of institutional mandate in which public institutions, law enforcement bodies are alleged to be encouraging the very conduct they are required to prevent.”
The statement stressed that Ghana cannot continue on a trajectory in which illegal and irresponsible mining activities are addressed through tolerance, unlawful payments and administrative compromises rather than firm and impartial law enforcement, respect for human rights and the environment.
Such an approach, the statement continued, weakens the rule of law, entrenches corruption and deepens environmental and social harm in mining-affected communities.
The environmental watchdog reinforced that addressing this situation required prompt, independent investigations into the allegations raised by the documentary and firm enforcement action against both operators and public officials who are found to have abused their mandates.
Wacam further noted that Ghana’s mining laws are clear that illegal mining is not only committed by those who operate without a licence but also by anyone who facilitates, encourages or protects such activities and such conduct attracts severe criminal sanctions including heavy fines and long prison terms.
To this end, it urged the government to ensure that institutions and public officials mandated to stop illegal and irresponsible mining enforce the law without compromise, rather than enabling or benefiting from the very activities the law criminalises.
