Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has for the fourth time forced the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) to complain about his tactics around data on petroleum receipts.
In its delayed semi-annual report on the country’s petroleum receipts, PIAC notes that Ofori-Atta’s Ministry has once more refused to provide full data on receipts and utilization to the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).
“For the fourth time, the Ministry of Finance failed to provide ABFA utilization data for the compilation of PIAC Reports. This makes it difficult to reconcile disbursements and expenditure, and undermines the spirit of accountability as envisaged in the PRMA,” PIAC noted.
The Committee went on to cite that over US$33million that ought to have been transferred to the Ghana Stabilization Fund (GSF) was somehow not transferred.
“At the end of the period, an amount of US$33.34 million, being the excess over the cap of US$100 million placed on the GSF, was not transferred into the Sinking and/or Contingency Funds, as required by Law,” PIAC said.
In the past the same Finance Ministry headed by Ken Ofori-Atta has not been straightforward with PIAC in respect of money inflows to the ABFA and whereabouts of residuals after surpluses at the end of budget cycles.
in May 2019, PIAC similarly accused Ofori-Atta of hiding some Ghc440million that was retained by Ofori-Atta in a supposed Treasury that only he knew about.
The Ministry programmed an amount of GH¢1.55 billion for spending in 2018, equaling 70 percent of net petroleum revenues, and from 2017, there was an unutilised ABFA of GH¢403.74 million (now GH¢440.84 million due to exchange rate gains), which according to the Ministry of Finance was being held in the Treasury Single Account (TSA), and would be brought forward to 2018.
By this calculation, the amount that should have been programmed for spending in 2018 should be GH¢1.99billion, PIAC said in a Press Release.
Then, in December 2020, PIAC had cause to chastise Ofori-Atta again over deliberate antics in respect of oil money spent on the ABFA and the remaining surplus.
“PIAC reiterates its earlier call on Parliament to bring its oversight mandate to bear on the Ministry of Finance. This is because the Ministry’s persistent failure (fourth time) to provide half-year data on ABFA utilisation is not only adversely affecting the work of the Committee, but also eroding gains in the fight for transparency and accountability in the management and use of Ghana’s petroleum revenues for the benefit of citizens,” the Committee wrote.