Ministry of Finance to audit payables, commitments to validate legitimacy 

The Ministry of Finance has commissioned the Auditor-General and two international audit firms, to audit the payables and commitments to validate their legitimacy and values and provide recommendations for corrective measures. 

The audit is expected to be completed within eight weeks. 

Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, Minister For Finance, speaking at the MOF-IMF joint press conference on the 4th review of the IMF-Supported Programme, said the government remained committed to the implementation of the Programme. 

The IMF mission, which began on April 2, 2025, was successfully concluded on April 15, 2025. 

The IMF staff and the Ghanaian authorities have reached a staff-level agreement on the fourth review of Ghana’s economic programme under the Extended Credit Facility arrangement. 

The team-Ied by Mr. Stéphane Roudet, Mission Chief for Ghana discussed progress on the authorities’ policy and reform priorities in the context of the fourth review of Ghana’s three-year program under the Extended Credit Facility. 

Dr Forson said the government would ensure that its objectives remained on track, despite the challenges faced with implementation. 

The Minister said the government had passed an amendment to the Procurement Act to ensure that the issuance of commitment authorisation (e.g., commencement certificate) by the Minister for Finance was a prerequisite for all central government procurements under the Authority or the Central Tender Review Committee. 

“We have amended the PFM Act 2016 (Act 921) to introduce a debt rule to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to 45 per cent by 2035, and an operational rule to post an annual primary surplus on a commitment basis of at least 1.5 per cent of GDP,” he added. 

He said the amendment also legislated the establishment of an independent fiscal council to monitor adherence to these fiscal rules. 

Dr Forson said the Ministry had commenced the operationalisation of the Compliance Desk to monitor MDAs’ compliance with their fiscal commitments under the PFM Act. 

“We will soon begin publishing a PFM Commitment Control Compliance League Table, ranking MDAs based on their level of compliance and non-compliance with PFM commitment controls and expenditure monitoring measures,” Dr Forson said. 

He said the government had also addressed and implemented several structural reforms that were expected to be completed by end-December 2024 and end-March 2025. 

The Minister said the government had migrated 549 MDAs and MMDAs’ spending units’ accounts into Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System. 

He said the PURC had published on its website the validation report of the ECG revenue/collection accounts audit for Q4 2023 and the full year 2024, even though the structural benchmark conditionality was for H1 2024. 

The implementation of the recently announced quarterly tariff adjustments by PURC was executed to satisfy the Structural Benchmark conditionality under the programme. 

Dr Forson acknowledged that fiscal risks in the energy sector remained a challenge, but said government had instituted measures to reduce, and eventually eliminate, the shortfall. 

He said the government had operationalised the single account mechanism and ensured that the Cash Waterfall Mechanism was being implemented according to the guidelines, to guarantee minimum contractual payments to the IPPs, among others. 

He assured Ghanaians, IMF, and other key stakeholders that he would personally lead the charge to ensure the implementation of all commitments under the Fund-supported programme, which were necessary for the approval of the 4th review by the IMF Board. 

The approval will trigger the immediate disbursement of the 5th Tranche of $370 million,  

bringing total disbursements under the programme to $2.3 billion. 

He said reaching a Staff-Level Agreement on the 4th review marked significant progress and commended the IMF Mission Team for their continued support, professionalism, and constructive engagement throughout the 4th Review Mission. 

Source: GNA

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