Founder and Leader of the All People’s Congress (APC), Dr Hassan Ayariga, has criticised the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, accusing him of withholding government funds instead of disbursing them to the various ministries.
In an interview on Metro TV, shared on X and sighted by GhanaWeb on October 16, 2026, Dr Ayariga alleged that the Finance Minister was holding on to funds approved by Parliament, leaving several ministries struggling to carry out their activities.
According to him, the minister was withholding the funds because of what he described as commitment authorisation, questioning whether Ato Forson considered himself a “demigod.”
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“We have a Finance Minister today who is sitting on so much money, and all the ministries are struggling. With the intention that we don't want to give money to the ministries because we have to do what is called commitment authorisation before you are given money to do a project.
“Some ministers have projects in front of them that have gone through Parliament, received ratification and had their budgets approved by Parliament. The Minister for Finance sits in his office and becomes a demigod and is not releasing resources to any of them,” he said.
Dr Ayariga further alleged that despite the delays in releasing funds to the various ministries over the commitment authorisation process, the Finance Minister had been holding meetings in other regions every week.
He questioned the need for the minister to travel regularly for press conferences and meetings while, according to him, funds needed by the ministries remained unavailable.
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“I saw him say something like that, which actually made me so upset, that he doesn't want to release money for them to go and be having conferences and travel anyhow and do what? What do you mean? Every week, you go to Volta Serene Hotel.
“Drive from Accra every week. The hotel is owned by Sky, something like that. You are driving every day, every week, to go and have press conferences and to go and have meetings. That is not an expenditure,” he added.
Watch the video below:
“We have a Finance Minister who is sitting on money and acting like a demigod.” — Dr. Hassan Ayariga @Dr_Ayariga1
— Metro TV Ghana (@metrotvgh) October 16, 2026
Dr. Hassan Ayariga criticises the Finance Minister, raising questions about the management and release of public funds.
#metrotv #ghanapolitics #hassanayariga #financeminister #ghananews
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