Finance Ministry struggles to release its own budget records

The Ministry of Finance, the institution responsible for releasing public funds to all government Ministries, has failed to disclose information on its own budgetary allocations and disbursements despite a Right to Information request submitted by the Media Foundation for West Africa.

In April and May 2026, the MFWA submitted RTI requests to all ministries and some other state institutions requesting a breakdown of their budgetary allocations and actual disbursements. The data was needed as part of an ongoing analysis of the allocations and disbursements of public finances to all ministries and selected state institutions by The Fourth Estate, a project of the MFWA. The requested information covered 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

While many institutions have provided the requested information, the Ministry of Finance, arguably the most critical custodian of such data, has remained silent despite an internal appeal to the Minister as required by the RTI Act, 989.

Initially, when the MFWA submitted the first request on April 7, 2026, the RTI Officer of the Ministry of Finance reached out and demanded that a portion of the letter that read “the Ministry” should be changed to “the Ministry of Finance”. Not even an explanation by an Associate Editor of The Fourth Estate that, preceding paragraphs had stated “the Ministry of Finance” and therefore, there was no need to state it in full, was convincing to the Officer.

Determined to obtain the requested information, the MFWA obliged and submitted a revised letter on April 13, 2026. The RTI Officer acknowledged receipt of the letter same day.

After weeks of follow ups, the Ministry remains silent.

As the custodian of the national purse and the Ministry responsible for approving and releasing funds to every ministry, department and agency, the Finance Ministry occupies the centre of Ghana’s public financial management system. Its refusal, therefore, raises questions about transparency and accountability.

This adds to previous records of public institutions denying the MFWA’s RTI requests.

The Fourth Estate in July 2026 petitioned the RTI Commission over the Public Procurement Authority’s refusal to release information regarding road contract procurement approval requests that the Authority had received from the Ghana Highway Authority, the Department of Urban Roads, and the Department of Feeder Roads since January 2025.

In May 2025, The Fourth Estate dragged Parliament to the RTI Commission after the legislature failed to release information on expenditure on foreign medical travels of the Speaker. 

Similarly, in December 2025, The Fourth Estate took the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) to the RTI Commission. This was after YEA refused to provide a list of contracts the Agency had signed with Zoomlion Company Limited from 2017 to 2024. Others include the Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Police.