The Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has accused the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration of poor fiscal management, alleging that weak expenditure controls resulted in wasteful and reckless government spending.

According to him, the fiscal management of the previous administration was characterised by inadequate controls over government expenditure, with ministries and agencies able to make spending commitments without sufficient central oversight.

“There was poor fiscal management during the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government. There was reckless spending at the Finance Ministry at the time,” he stated in an interview on Ahenfie FM monitored by GhanaWeb on September 14, 2026.

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The Finance Minister said the government had since introduced a commitment authorisation system to strengthen expenditure controls and ensure that spending commitments were properly authorised before they were made.

“There was no central authority in charge of procurement to control spending. There was wasteful expenditure,” he said.

Dr Forson also criticised the size of the previous government, describing it as bloated compared with the current administration.

He said the NDC government currently has 59 ministers, which he argued demonstrates a deliberate effort to reduce the size and cost of government.

The Finance Minister further pointed to improvements in Ghana’s debt management, contrasting the current situation with the economic conditions inherited by the NDC in 2025.

“If you compare 2024 to now, there has been a major improvement in the economy. At that time, our economy was in default; now we pay with ease because of the debt management structure in place,” he said.

Dr Ato Forson accused the previous government of failing to disclose the full extent of the economic difficulties before leaving office, despite its public criticism of the NDC.

“They didn't tell us about the state of the economy. They labelled us incompetent, but it wasn't true,” he said.

He said the NDC government had made progress in stabilising the economy and improving governance within its first 20 months in office under President John Mahama.

Dr Ato Forson also linked the challenges surrounding the placement of students into senior high schools to Ghana’s infrastructure deficit.

He said the difficulty was not solely an administrative problem but had roots in the inadequate number of schools and other public infrastructure available to accommodate the growing number of students.

“It has only been two years. Public infrastructure is not the best. We need more infrastructure in schools,” he said.

He said the government would therefore need to continue investing in public infrastructure while maintaining measures aimed at strengthening fiscal discipline and improving the management of the economy.

JKB/MA

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