Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has defended the government’s efforts to control public expenditure, saying the Mahama administration is determined to eliminate what he described as wasteful procurement and spending.
Speaking on Ahenfie FM, Dr. Forson said the government inherited a fiscal environment where chief executive officers of state institutions could make procurement decisions without adequate central oversight.
“When we came to government, then fiscal policy was bad, everyone was doing what they they want. Chief Executive Officers at various departments like ECG, COCOBOD were doing what ever they want.”
He alleged that some CEOs could procure materials far beyond the immediate needs of their institutions simply because procurement processes were ongoing.
“Chief Executive Officer could purchase materials for the next ten years which the company might not even need it, as long as procurement is going on.”
According to the Finance Minister, the government responded by introducing a Commitment Authorisation system to strengthen expenditure controls and ensure that spending by state institutions remains within approved budgets.
“So when we came, we introduced the Commitment Authorisation. Everyone was doing anything under the previous administration, as long as one thinks he or she is the CEO. There was no Central authority in charge to monitor what was going on.”
“But under Mahama, we said enough is enough. If as a CEO you want to do something, it should be within your budget so we introduced something called the Commitment Authorization to control those kind of expenditures.”
Dr. Forson used the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to illustrate the principle behind the system, arguing that institutions should align procurement with their available revenue and approved spending limits.
“Let’s take ECG for instance, If your revenue is 10gh, you’ll use part to procure.. So you can’t procure more than 10gh.”
He said the expenditure controls have contributed to a reduction in government spending while supporting stronger economic growth.
“So you could see that expenditure has come down now and economic growth has gone up. We’ve cut expenditure and those expenditure we cut were waste.”
The Finance Minister’s comments come amid the government’s broader efforts to restore fiscal discipline and improve the management of public finances.
His remarks underline the administration’s position that expenditure cuts should target wasteful and unnecessary procurement while preserving funding for essential government programmes and services.
The government has repeatedly said that fiscal consolidation and expenditure controls are central to its efforts to stabilise the economy and create room for sustainable growth.
