Ghana’s Money Must Work – Adusei Richard writes

Stop Budgeting Money Into Silence

By Adusei Richard

Ghana has a question that deserves national attention:

What is the value of approving money for development if the money is not eventually used to deliver the development?

This is not an argument for reckless government spending. It is an argument for responsible execution.

A government budget is a promise translated into numbers. Parliament approves resources because the country has needs—roads, schools, hospitals, agriculture, sanitation, public services, infrastructure, employment and economic activity.

But when money is allocated and departments fail to use it, the country can experience a strange situation:

The budget exists, the allocation exists, the need exists—but the activity does not happen.

And when public expenditure does not happen, the economic activity that would have followed it may also be delayed.

THE DANGER OF DOUBLE CONTROL

Financial discipline is necessary.

The Minister of Finance has a responsibility to protect the public purse. Government departments also have a responsibility to ensure that every cedi is properly accounted for.

But what happens when there is control at the Ministry level and another layer of excessive caution inside the department?

The result can become what I would call double control.

The Ministry controls the release.

The department fears spending.

Officials become afraid of making decisions.

Projects are delayed.

Procurement processes move slowly.

Approved programmes remain on paper.

Contractors wait.

Suppliers wait.

Workers wait.

Businesses wait.

And the economy waits.

There is a major difference between preventing waste and preventing legitimate expenditure from happening.

Ghana must understand that difference.

AN ALLOCATION IS NOT AN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

Suppose GH₵10 million is allocated to a government department.

The announcement may make people believe that GH₵10 million has entered the economy.

It has not.

If the department eventually spends only GH₵4 million, the remaining GH₵6 million has not generated the economic transactions originally expected from that spending.

That could mean fewer contracts, fewer purchases, fewer wages, fewer suppliers’ revenues and fewer opportunities for businesses.

This is why government should not measure success only by how much money it has saved.

We must also ask what the country lost by failing to execute approved programmes.

WHERE IS THE INITIATIVE?

This is where government departments must take responsibility.

A department should not become an office whose main achievement is producing reports about why nothing happened.

Heads of departments and managers must demonstrate initiative.

If funds are approved for a programme, officials should be asking:

How do we implement it?

How quickly can we deliver it?

Who needs to be involved?

What obstacles must we remove?

What results should the Ghanaian people see?

Leadership is not merely the ability to protect one’s position.

Leadership is the ability to turn resources into results.

If every official is waiting for another official to approve, release, interpret or authorize something, the machinery of government becomes slow.

And when government becomes slow, the private sector can feel it.

WE MUST STOP CELEBRATING UNDERSpending AUTOMATICALLY

There is a dangerous assumption that spending less money is always evidence of good financial management.

It is not.

Sometimes underspending is good.

If a department planned to spend GH₵10 million but achieved the same or better result with GH₵7 million, that may represent efficiency.

But if the department planned to spend GH₵10 million on a necessary programme and spent only GH₵4 million because of delays, excessive caution, lack of initiative or bureaucratic obstacles, that is not automatically a success.

It may be underperformance.

The question should therefore be:

Did Ghana receive the results for which the money was approved?

That is the question that matters.

FINANCIAL CONTROL MUST HAVE A PURPOSE

Financial control should prevent corruption.

It should prevent waste.

It should prevent unauthorized expenditure.

It should protect taxpayers’ money.

But financial control should ultimately serve development.

If the controls become so complicated that responsible officials are afraid to act, the system has defeated part of its own purpose.

We should not create a public service where officials think:

«”The safest thing is not to spend.”»

The better mentality should be:

«”The safest thing is to spend responsibly, transparently and effectively.”»

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE CANNOT DO IT ALONE

This issue should not be turned into an attack on the Minister of Finance.

The Ministry has a legitimate duty to maintain fiscal discipline.

But the departments receiving public resources also have a duty.

If funds are released and departments still fail to implement programmes, the responsibility moves beyond the Ministry of Finance.

It becomes a management and leadership problem within the spending institution.

Ghana therefore needs accountability in both directions.

The Ministry of Finance must ask:

Why are approved funds not being released or processed on time?

Departments must be asked:

Why are funds available but programmes are still not being implemented?

Both questions must be answered.

GHANA NEEDS A NEW PERFORMANCE CULTURE

Imagine a system where every major government department publishes four simple figures:

Budget approved.

Funds released.

Funds spent.

Results achieved.

That would change the conversation.

We would stop discussing budgets only as enormous figures.

We would begin discussing results.

A department that spends 95% of its allocation but produces poor results should not automatically receive praise.

A department that spends 70% but delivers exceptional results should not automatically be condemned.

The real measure must be:

VALUE FOR MONEY.

LET THE MONEY MOVE WHERE IT IS SUPPOSED TO MOVE

Government expenditure can connect different parts of the economy.

A public project can create work for a contractor.

The contractor can pay workers.

Workers can buy food.

Food sellers can buy more stock.

Suppliers can purchase more goods.

Transport operators can receive more business.

Small businesses can experience more customers.

That is how economic activity can spread.

Therefore, when legitimate public expenditure is unnecessarily delayed, we should not look only at the government account.

We should also look at the businesses and households that were expecting the economic activity.

THE REAL ENEMY IS NOT SPENDING—IT IS WASTEFUL SPENDING

Ghana cannot afford reckless expenditure.

But neither can Ghana afford a public sector where fear, bureaucracy and lack of initiative leave necessary programmes sitting idle.

We need disciplined spending—not paralysed spending.

We need accountability—not unnecessary bureaucracy.

We need controls—not suffocation.

We need departments that take initiative—not departments that simply wait.

And we need financial managers who understand that fiscal responsibility is not only about keeping money under control.

It is also about ensuring that approved public resources produce measurable value for Ghana.

THE QUESTION GHANA SHOULD NOW ASK

The next time government announces a large budget allocation, citizens should not simply ask:

“How much has government allocated?”

They should ask:

“How much has been released?”

“How much has been spent?”

“Why has the balance not been spent?”

“What prevented implementation?”

“Who is responsible for the delay?”

And finally:

“What did Ghanaian citizens receive in return?”

Because a budget is not development.

An allocation is not development.

A financial approval is not development.

Development begins when resources are responsibly transformed into results.

Ghana does not need government departments that are merely good at receiving allocations.

Ghana needs departments that can think, initiate, execute, innovate and deliver.

The Ministry of Finance must protect the public purse.

Government departments must put approved resources to productive use.

And both must remember one fundamental principle:

PUBLIC MONEY IS NOT MEANT ONLY TO BE CONTROLLED. IT IS MEANT TO SERVE THE PUBLIC.

Ghana’s money must work.