The Minority caucus in Parliament has accused the government of manipulating Ghana’s fiscal data, labeling it as “statistical thievery.”
According to the former Finance Minister, Mohammed Amin Adam, the government distorted the country’s fiscal balance by including multi-year arrears as if they were accumulated in 2024 alone.
Speaking at a press briefing on the 2025 Budget Statement, Amin Adam questioned why the government altered its reporting methodology in the fourth International Monetary Fund (IMF) review after three previous reviews adhered to a different approach.
“We’ve gone through three successful IMF reviews and the technical people never told us that we needed to compile claims from several years and include it in the fiscal framework as if they were accumulated in 2024 alone. Why they will do that in the fourth review we don’t understand. And this is why the IMF has to speak because you cant have inconsistent methodology.” he said.
He argued that the standard practice in previous IMF reviews was to report arrears only from the beginning of the fiscal year under review. However, in the latest budget, the government allegedly instructed Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to submit outstanding claims from past years, amounting to GH₵49.2 billion, which was then factored into the fiscal deficit.
“Three of them you didn’t do that – the fourth one, you ask MDAs to bring projects that have been done but not paid for, and they bring you those projects. You compile it, amounting to GH₵49 billion, and you say these are claims that must go into the fiscal data,” he argued.
Amin Adam further criticized the government for failing to follow due process by ensuring that only arrears processed through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS)—which verifies and audits claims—were considered.
“What the Hon. Minister failed to do is that the only arrears are those that have gone through the GIFMIS system because they have been audited. But any other thing that you call claims cannot be arrears unless they go through verification, auditing, and the GIFMIS system,” he explained.
He pointed out that the Budget Statement itself contained inconsistencies, with the government listing two separate arrears categories—one recognized under GIFMIS and the other as “unreleased claims.”
“Yet you read the Budget Statement, you look at the fiscals, and you’ll see the minister under arrears clearance has two lines. The first line is arrears reported in GIFMIS. The second one, which he created artificially, he called it unreleased claims—that is very alien to the fiscal framework, and that GH₵49.2 billion is what took the fiscals out of gear,” he stressed.
The Minority is demanding that the government justify the methodology used in computing fiscal balances, arguing that it contradicts the agreed terms with the IMF.
“The government must therefore explain how they came by the methodology used in computing the fiscal balances. I am really lost as to how they derived the fiscal balances without applying the methodology agreed with the IMF in the technical memorandum of understanding,” Amin Adam insisted.
