Ministry of Finance to audit payables, commitments to validate legitimacy  - Ghana Business News

Dr. Ato Forson – Minister of Finance

The Ministry of Finance has commissioned an audit. The Auditor-General and two international firms will validate payables and commitments. They will check their legitimacy and values. Recommendations for corrective measures will also be provided. The audit is expected to finish in eight weeks.

Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minister for Finance, spoke at a press conference on April 4. He discussed the fourth review of the IMF-Supported Programme. He emphasized that the government is committed to implementing this programme.

The IMF mission started on April 2, 2025, and ended on April 15, 2025. The staff-level agreement was reached regarding Ghana’s economic programme under the Extended Credit Facility arrangement. Mr. Stéphane Roudet led the team discussing policy progress and reform priorities.

Dr. Forson stated that the government aims to stay on track despite challenges in implementation. He mentioned an amendment to the Procurement Act was passed recently. This amendment requires commitment authorization from the Minister for all central government procurements.

Additionally, he noted changes to the PFM Act 2016 (Act 921). These changes introduce a debt rule aiming to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to 45% by 2035. An operational rule mandates an annual primary surplus of at least 1.5% of GDP.

The amendment also establishes an independent fiscal council to monitor these rules' adherence. Dr. Forson announced that a Compliance Desk has been set up in his Ministry. This desk will monitor compliance with fiscal commitments under the PFM Act.

He plans to publish a PFM Commitment Control Compliance League Table soon. This table will rank MDAs based on their compliance levels with expenditure monitoring measures.

The government has implemented several structural reforms expected to complete by December 2024 and March 2025. Dr. Forson reported that they have migrated accounts from 549 MDAs into Ghana's Integrated Financial Management Information System.

He mentioned that PURC published a validation report for ECG revenue/collection accounts for Q4 2023 and full year 2024 on its website, despite benchmarks set for H1 2024.

Recently announced quarterly tariff adjustments by PURC were executed as part of program requirements under structural benchmarks.

Dr. Forson acknowledged ongoing fiscal risks in the energy sector but assured measures are being taken to address them effectively.

He confirmed that a single account mechanism has been operationalized along with a Cash Waterfall Mechanism for minimum contractual payments to IPPs.

He assured Ghanaians, IMF, and stakeholders he would lead efforts ensuring all commitments under this Fund-supported programme are met for IMF Board approval of the fourth review.

Approval will trigger immediate disbursement of $370 million as part of Tranche five, totaling $2.3 billion disbursed under this programme so far.

Dr. Forson praised reaching a Staff-Level Agreement as significant progress and thanked the IMF Mission Team for their support during this process.