News:
April 2, 2026
The Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Abena Osei-Asare, has stated that the committee’s public hearing is neither about chasing headlines nor settling political scores. Speaking on Thursday, April 2, 2026, during PAC’s sitting on the Auditor-General’s special audit report on government outstanding claims and commitments as of December 31, 2024, she noted that a similar exercise was conducted in 2018 when the NPP first took over from the NDC.
According to the Chair, the Ministry of Finance submitted a total of $241 billion worth of commitments, claims, and bank transfer advice for validation. Out of this amount, $104.4 billion was validated and recommended for payment, while $115.5 billion was held to be justified with relevant documents before any payments could be made.
From the same $241 billion, claims and bank transfer advice alone were teased out, amounting to $68.7 billion, later reclassified to $66.7 billion. Of that reclassified amount, $47.7 billion was validated for payment, $10.3 billion was rejected outright, and $8.6 billion remains subject to further justification before any payment can properly be made.
Madam Osei-Asare noted that these are not small discrepancies and raise serious questions about controls, documentation, and accountability in the management of public obligations. She recalled that a similar audit report from December 2016, titled “The Abilities of Ministries, Departments and Agencies,” showed $11.8 billion in bank transfer advice and claims presented for validation, out of which $6.3 billion was validated and $5.3 billion rejected outright.
She explained that auditors were contracted to interrogate 50 ministries, departments, and agencies on their documentation and liabilities. Their mandate was first to establish whether claims were supported by contracts, proper approvals, evidence of work done, and compliance with the Public Financial Management Act. Second, to distinguish legitimate obligations from irregular or unsupported claims, stressing that the state must honour lawful debts but will not pay what cannot be justified. Third, to help strengthen the system with better controls, record-keeping, and commitment management.
The Chair emphasised that every cedi wrongly claimed is a cedi diverted from schools, hospitals, roads, and other livelihood programmes. “We will be guided by evidence, not assumption; by the law, not sentiments,” she said. The committee’s objective, she added, is not just to produce a report but to restore confidence that public finances are managed with integrity, obligations are honoured lawfully, and financial management systems are strong enough to prevent recurrence. “Accountability is not an event, it is a culture,” she concluded.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com