Member of Parliament for Atiwa East, Abena Osei-Asare, has demanded an explanation from the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) over the treatment of GH¢4.5477 billion in government funds in its 2025 financial statements.
Madam Osei-Asare said the government provided the amount to GoldBod as “revolving trade capital” to support its gold purchasing, trading and export operations, but the same funds were recognised in the accounts as grant revenue and contributed to the board’s reported surplus of about GH¢5.44 billion.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, August 27, 2026, the former Deputy Finance Minister questioned how the amount could have been treated as revenue when GoldBod also described it as “unutilised government subvention” and indicated that the full amount remained at the Bank of Ghana at the end of the financial year.
“That leaves an obvious accounting question: How did GH¢4.5477 billion provided as revolving trade capital, and still unutilised at year-end, come to be recognised as revenue contributing to a reported surplus of about GH¢5.44 billion?” she asked.
Madam Osei-Asare said the treatment required clarification under applicable public-sector accounting rules, citing the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) and Ghana’s Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
She specifically referenced IPSAS 1, which requires financial statements to provide a fair and consistent presentation of an entity’s financial performance, and IPSAS 23, which deals with revenue from non-exchange transactions, including government transfers.
She also cited Sections 79, 82 and 93 of the Public Financial Management Act, saying the provisions were relevant to the preparation, classification, and presentation of public financial statements.
The Atiwa East MP further raised concerns about what she described as inconsistent figures in different sections of GoldBod’s annual report.
According to her, the report contains different figures for expenditure, surplus, total assets, net assets and GoldBod’s share of profit in GoldBod Jewellery Limited.
“ A signed and audited annual report dealing with billions of cedis of public resources should not leave readers choosing between different figures for the same line item,” she said.
