The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has once again been identified as Ghana’s most fiscally irresponsible public institution, covering the period from 2021 to 2023. This assessment follows a similar ranking for the Ministry between 2015 and 2020
The findings are part of a newly released report by IMANI Africa and Oxfam Ghana, which assessed financial irregularities among Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) through the third edition of their Fiscal Recklessness Index. The report places the MoF at the top, followed by the Ministries of Food and Agriculture, Communication and Digitalisation, Roads and Highways, and Health.
During a media briefing on the report, Dennis Asare, Senior Research Associate at IMANI Africa, revealed that Ghana lost over GH₵ 4.9 billion in 2023 due to various financial mismanagement issues. Mr. Asare emphasized that these significant financial losses could have been channeled into social intervention programs such as the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) initiative and the Ghana School Feeding Programme.
Mr. Asare noted that as the central agency managing public finances, the Ministry’s poor oversight highlights systemic failures affecting the entire public sector.
He further explained that the fiscal mismanagement extends beyond the Ministry’s headquarters to other agencies under its jurisdiction. A key issue highlighted in the report was the government’s failure to effectively collect taxes, exposing critical gaps in revenue mobilization.
To address these challenges, the report proposed a series of recommendations, including the establishment of a stronger fiscal oversight body. The report underscores the need for immediate action to curb financial waste and improve fiscal discipline across Ghana’s public institutions.
SOURCE: https://dew360.net
Join our WhatsApp channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VakDz4u9RZATWh53yC1a
