The government has rejected GH¢8.1 billion in claims submitted for payment after an audit found problems with some of the demands, including duplicate submissions, falsified receipts and payments for work that was never completed.

Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem revealed this at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Institute of Internal Auditors Ghana on Friday, October 16, 2026, where he called for tighter checks on government spending.

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According to him out of the  GH¢68.7 billion in claims submitted for verification, GH¢8.1 billion was rejected, noting that some of the claims lack proper supporting documents, while others contain false information.

He further argued that preventing questionable payments at the beginning would save the state the time and cost of trying to recover public money later.

“It is better to stop an improper payment before it is made than to spend years trying to recover the money,” he said.

He  also pointed to a reduction in financial irregularities reported across five categories of public institutions where figures from the 2025 Auditor-General’s reports showed that the amount fell from approximately GH¢20.72 billion in 2024 to GH¢7.69 billion in 2025, a decline of 62.9 per cent.

Although the reduction represents an improvement, Ampem said public institutions could not afford to relax their checks while billions of cedis in irregularities remained.

He called on internal auditors to pay particular attention to government procurement, payroll records and major public projects.

He said early checks could help identify questionable transactions before they result in financial losses.

He added that the effective management of public funds was necessary for the government to finance its development plans, including investments in infrastructure, technology, skills and businesses.

“We cannot mobilise scarce resources for development on one hand and allow them to leak through weak financial controls on the other,” he said.

ANAS

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