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 conduct it. They will validate the legitimacy and values of payables and commitments. Recommendations for corrective measures will also be provided. This audit is expected to finish in eight weeks.

Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minister for Finance, spoke at a press conference. This was during the MOF-IMF joint event on 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 assured that government objectives would stay on track despite challenges in implementation. He mentioned an amendment to the Procurement Act has been passed. This amendment requires commitment authorization from the Minister for all central government procurements.

Additionally, he stated that they amended the PFM Act 2016 (Act 921). This introduces 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 noted that a Compliance Desk has begun monitoring MDAs’ compliance with fiscal commitments under the PFM Act.

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

The government has implemented several structural reforms expected to complete by December 2024 and March 2025. Dr. Forson reported that they 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 audit for Q4 2023 and full year 2024 on its website, even though it was due in H1 2024.

Recently announced quarterly tariff adjustments by PURC were executed as part of Structural Benchmark conditionality under this programme.

Dr. Forson acknowledged ongoing fiscal risks in the energy sector but assured measures are in place to reduce them over time.

He confirmed that they have operationalized a single account mechanism and are implementing a Cash Waterfall Mechanism according to guidelines for minimum contractual payments to IPPs.

He promised 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.

This approval will trigger an immediate disbursement of $370 million, bringing total disbursements under this programme to $2.3 billion.

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