Lawyer drags Goldbod to court over ‘refusal’ to release gold purchase records

A Ghanaian lawyer has asked the High Court to compel state-backed gold aggregator Goldbod to open its books and disclose detailed records of its operations since it was set up in 2025.

Private legal practitioner Eric Dawda filed an application for an order of mandamus on Monday 5 January, accusing the institution of failing to comply with a Right to Information (RTI) request.

In an affidavit to the court, Dawda said he formally requested information from Goldbod under the RTI Act but received no response.

He added that after the silence from Goldbod, he escalated the matter to the Right to Information Commission, only for that petition to also go unanswered. The court is now being asked to step in and enforce disclosure.

The application invites the court to order Goldbod to release, among others:

A list of all small-scale miners and licensed mining companies it has purchased gold from since inception

including licence numbers, dates of transactions, quantities bought and the locations of the miners

Policy and operational documents governing Goldbod’s gold buying and selling activities

Full details of gold export transactions carried out since 2025

Information on financial inflows and outflows linked to its operations

Internal control systems, procurement plans, and any guidelines or directives on how gold is assayed, valued and exported

Goldbod was created to centralise and regulate state purchases of gold from small-scale miners but has not publicly commented on the suit.

The High Court has not yet fixed a date for hearing the application.