By Felix Cofie
The Minority Caucus of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Parliament has strongly pushed back against portions of the Special Audit Report on the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative, describing key conclusions as “factually inaccurate” and “legally unsupported”.
In a press statement issued in Accra on March 19, 2026, the caucus said that while it fully respects the constitutional mandate of the Auditor-General under Article 187 of the 1992 Constitution, it cannot accept what it calls misleading characterizations of the programme’s financial arrangements.
The 1D1F initiative, launched in 2017 under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was designed as a flagship industrialization policy to address unemployment and reduce Ghana’s reliance on raw commodity exports. According to the Minority, the programme followed a private sector-led model, with the government playing a facilitative role rather than directly establishing factories.
They explained that beneficiary companies under the initiative fell into two categories: greenfield projects—new factories in underserved districts—and brownfield investments, which involved expanding or modernizing existing businesses. Selection, they noted, was carried out jointly by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and participating financial institutions, based on strict technical and financial criteria.
A major point of contention raised by the Minority relates to claims in the audit report suggesting “fictitious transactions” and deliberate diversion of funds. The caucus insists that these claims ignore the actual financing structure of the programme.
Under the 1D1F framework, the government partnered with banks to offer loans to companies at reduced interest rates through an interest subsidy scheme. However, the Minority revealed that in several cases, advance subsidy payments expected from the state did not fully materialize. As a result, some banks were unable to disburse loans to beneficiary companies.
“This explains why certain companies had no outstanding loans,” the statement clarified, arguing that the absence of debt does not indicate wrongdoing but rather reflects non-disbursement of funds.
The caucus further stressed that all financial transactions related to the programme were duly approved by Parliament, processed through the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, and executed via the Bank of Ghana in accordance with the Public Financial Management Act.
“A transaction that has passed through all established public financial management controls cannot, in law, be described as fictitious without evidence of fabrication,” the statement emphasized.
In light of these concerns, the Minority is calling for the Ministry of Finance to retract what it describes as damaging and unfounded claims in the audit report. It is also urging Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee to undertake a thorough and impartial review before assigning blame.
Additionally, the caucus is advocating for better engagement between auditors and implementing agencies in future reviews of major government programmes, to ensure accuracy and fairness.
The statement, signed by Michael Okyere Baafi, Ranking Member of the Trade, Industry and Tourism Committee, concluded that while the Minority supports accountability, it must be rooted in facts and not used as a political tool.
“Accountability must not be deployed to stigmatize a programme that was lawfully implemented and beneficial to the Ghanaian people,” the caucus said.
