The revelation has raised alarm among civil society actors and accountability advocates
The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC)’s State of Corruption Report 2024 has revealed that Ghana lost over GH¢9 billion to financial irregularities across state institutions in 2023.
The revelation has raised alarm among civil society actors and accountability advocates, who described the loss as a crippling blow to national development.
The GACC report, made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), citing data from the Auditor-General’s 2023 audit reports, breaks down the infractions into categories such as procurement violations, cash mismanagement, payroll fraud, tax defaults, and contract-related abuses.
It noted that public boards and statutory corporations alone accounted for GH¢8.8 billion of the losses, while Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) accounted for an additional GH¢265 million.
“GH¢9 billion lost to irregularities in a single year is unconscionable,” the report stated, indicating that “these are resources that could have transformed education, healthcare, roads, and basic amenities for millions of Ghanaians.”
Particularly alarming, it noted, was the surge in contract and procurement infractions, which were identified as the fastest-growing categories of financial abuse, stating that between 2022 and 2023, procurement-related infractions skyrocketed, contributing significantly to the total loss figure.
This, GACC argued, reflected weak internal controls, poor oversight, and possible collusion between public officials and contractors.
The report underscored the structural nature of the problem, indicating that the scale of the losses showed that corruption was not limited to isolated incidents or rogue officials, but reflected broader weaknesses in institutional processes and public financial management systems.
“At the district level, the trend is equally disturbing. District Assemblies recorded over GH¢22 million in irregularities in 2023 – up from the previous year. Most of these involved unauthorised cash disbursements and misapplication of funds. This means that even at the local government level, where resources are scarce, significant amounts are being lost due to poor accountability,” the report noted.
GACC therefore called for a more integrated and strategic approach to auditing and accountability, recommending the creation of a centralised corruption database that could track irregularities in real-time, harmonise data from oversight institutions, and ensure that appropriate sanctions were applied promptly.
The coalition also reiterated its call for the amendment of the Internal Audit Agency Act to give the agency more autonomy and enforcement powers, arguing that that would strengthen internal audit units and ensure early detection and prevention of financial abuses before they escalated.
“While the Ghana Audit Service was able to recover some GH¢41 million during the year, the figure represents less than 0.5% of the total amount lost. This shows that recovery efforts remain weak and highlights the urgent need for preventive reforms rather than reactive ones,” it stated.
The GACC’s 2024 corruption report painted a dire picture of Ghana’s public financial health, calling on both Parliament and the Executive to treat the Auditor-General’s findings not just as annual reports, but as calls to urgent action, stressing that “Every cedi lost to corruption is a cedi stolen from the future of this country.”