Economist Professor Lord Mensah is calling for strict enforcement of Ghana’s public financial management laws.

Speaking to Citi News, Prof. Lord Mensah said any breaches of Ghana’s public financial management laws should warrant punitive sanctions.

“The question is those who falter in that manner, what do we do to them? Those are the problems I am looking at.”

“That is why I said the punitive measures are not clearly spelt out in the PFM [Public Financial Management laws],” Prof. Mensah added.


His comments come on the back of the latest Fiscal Recklessness Index report, which IMANI and Oxfam Ghana jointly published.

The report cites the Ministry of Finance as being the state institution with the highest level of fiscal recklessness between 2015 and 2020, recording more than GHS 11 billion in losses to the state.

The Ministry of Health was ranked as the second most financially reckless institution in the country.

The Fiscal Recklessness Index 2020 report also ranked financial irregularities for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies within the period.

It noted that between 2010 and 2014 and the period between 2015 and 2020, recklessness increased by about 13 times.

Between 2010 and 2014, the financial cost of irregularity was about GHS 1.4 billion, but between 2015 and 2020 it rose to about GHS 13.9 billion.

The report indicated that despite laws and regulations and accounting and auditing standards, political economy issues continue to hamper the effective implementation of PFM systems.

This, in its view, results in the regular occurrence of financial irregularities.

These include the over-politicisation of government function and the lack of independence of state institutions, coupled with weak corporate governance in the public sector.

Source: citifmonline