By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Auditor-General has uncovered GH¢5.266 billion in financial irregularities across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the financial year ended December 31, 2025.
The report shows a 156% increase in financial irregularities compared with the previous year, the highest level recorded in the past five years.
According to the audit findings, tax-related irregularities accounted for more than 91% of the total amount flagged.
These losses stem chiefly from uncollected tax revenues, failure to enforce tax laws against private entities, and unremitted withholding taxes by government agencies.
Other persistent leaks highlighted in the report include: Procurement breaches through unapproved sole-sourcing; payroll fraud involving payments to ghost names; cash irregularities resulting from unapproved expenditures.
The latest findings push Ghana’s cumulative losses from public sector irregularities closer to GH¢100 billion over the past six years.
Anti-corruption Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have expressed deep concern over the data, citing a widening gap between audit discoveries and actual fund recovery.
Data from past audit cycles shows that between 2020 and 2023, less than a third of flagged funds were successfully recovered, leaving over GH¢61 billion completely unaccounted for.
Civil society groups are urgently calling on the Auditor-General to fully exercise his constitutional powers of disallowance and surcharging to hold offending public officials personally and financially liable.
The Auditor-General stated that the matters would be investigated further and, where necessary, expenditures found to be contrary to law would be disallowed, while responsible officials could be surcharged.
Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is expected to commence public hearings on the report in the coming weeks to interrogate the affected MDAs.
