The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has set up a five-member Committee to take stock of seized excavators.
The Committee is also expected to oversee the handing over of the responsibility of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining (IMCIM).
The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Ben Aryee, who doubles as the advisor on mines to the minister said they wanted to ensure they had facts.
“We are not talking about hearsay. The Minister, when he was vetted, indicated that some equipment including excavators were seized and there was a legal process for confiscation and so on.”
“Now that he has been cleared, he has just asked that the committee should brief him fully on the numbers in terms of an inventory of what exists and he will take a decision on what to do,” he said.
Dr. Aryee also indicated that the report will be submitted in one week.
The issue of excavators seized during the campaign against illegal mining sparked controversy following reports that some of them disappeared from the district assemblies where they were being kept.
Close to 500 excavators and other earth-moving machines were seized between 2017 and 2018.
The Lands and Natural Resources Ministry has previously said it was working to reconcile the figures.
At its last count, the then-sector minister, Kweku Asomah Cheremeh, said his outfit had 157 excavators in its possession.
But this was against 290 excavators seized by Operation Vanguard and 81 seized as part of the Galamstop campaign.
It also assured that the excavators had not been sold as claimed by critics.
An individual with ties to the governing party was arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for his alleged involvement in the disappearance of some excavators seized from illegal miners.