By Belinda Nketia
Activist and legal scholar Oliver Barker-Vormawor raised concerns about the management and protection of public funds in Ghana during a discussion on GTV’s Breakfast Show on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. The segment, hosted by Thelma Tackie, explored the topic “The Law and the Purse: Who Protects Public Funds in Ghana?”
Using the controversial National Cathedral project as an example, Barker-Vormawor said it represents “a classic case of an expenditure problem.” He noted that although Parliament initially withheld approval for funding the project, the executive was later granted access to discretionary funds, portions of which ended up financing what he described as “a vanity project.”
He also alleged troubling practices involving cash transactions at the presidency, citing an incident following the Makola market fire where about GH₵1 million was reportedly disbursed in cash to victims. “How is the presidency dealing in cash at that level? It is an auditing nightmare,” he said.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor further criticized the government’s practice of spending without prior parliamentary approval, only to seek ratification afterward. “In our case, we spend it anyway, while Parliament approves it later,” he said, arguing that this undermines parliamentary oversight and reduces budget approval to a mere formality.
He contrasted Ghana’s system with that of the United States, where he noted that in the U.S., if Congress does not approve funding, government operations halt. “There are many instances where they say, we have a government shutdown.’ It means money has not been approved, and so the government cannot spend, can’t pay salaries, and must wait for Congress to act,” he said. “Here, we do the spending first and legalize it later.”
