The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has dragged the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) to the Right to Information Commission (RTIC).

This is because the CAGD has denied the MFWA’s investigative journalism project, The Fourth Estate, information on salary deductions paid into the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, known as Mahama Cares.

The Fourth Estate had asked the Department for information, including the names of appointees who lost three months’ salary for failing to declare their assets and the total amount paid by the defaulters to the State’s coffers.

The request was filed under Article 21 of the 1992 Constitution and Section 18 of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989).

In a response, the Deputy Controller in charge of Finance and Administration, Emelia Osei Derkyi, said the Department could not release the information.

Although she admitted the request was in the public interest, she was quick to add that the details of individuals affected were supplied to the Department in confidence.

She cited Section 11 of Act 989, explaining that the section protects information that would reveal financial or labour-related data given to a public body in confidence, adding that the disclosure could stop other institutions from receiving similar information in future

Ms. Derkyi said releasing the names and figures paid could break the trust under which the information was given. She added that disclosure could hurt the interests the law was designed to protect.

“Accordingly, pursuant to Section 11(1)(d) of Act 989, the requested information is exempt from disclosure,” she wrote to The Fourth Estate.

She claimed the decision followed careful review of the law and the confidentiality tied to the information.

Background

President John Mahama announced the salary deductions in May 2025. He was speaking at the launch of a new Code of Conduct for his appointees.

The announcement followed a Fourth Estate investigation which revealed that fifty-five appointees and staffers had missed a March 31, 2025 deadline to declare their assets and liabilities. The deadline had been set by the President himself in February that year.

At the launch, Mr Mahama said all appointees who missed the deadline would lose three months’ salary. He said the money would go into a new fund named Mahama Cares. The fund was set up to support treatment for chronic illnesses. These include cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and kidney failure.

Mr Mahama also said appointees who missed the deadline would, in effect, pay four months’ salary. This included one extra month that all appointees were asked to donate voluntarily.

Mahama also warned that any appointee who still had not declared assets by May 7, 2025 would be dismissed.

He described the asset declaration regime as one of the most important tools against corruption. He said it was anchored in Article 286 of the Constitution and the Public Office Holders Act, Act 550.

The MFWA’s argument

The MFWA argued that Ghanaians have not been told how much money the Mahama Cares Fund has collected from defaulting appointees. They also do not know who among the fifty-five defaulters eventually complied, or how much each one paid.

The Fourth Estate’s April 2025 investigation had named several high-profile defaulters. These included Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, Special Envoy to the Alliance of Sahelian States; Nathan Kofi Boakye, Director of Operations at the Presidency; Charles Kipo, Director of the National Investigations Bureau; Nana Yaa Jantuah, a presidential staffer; Alhassan Suhuyini, Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways; Gizella Tetteh-Agbotui, Deputy Minister of Works and Housing; and John Dumelo, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture.

Without the requested data, it remains unclear whether the decision described by many as “punishment” announced by the President was actually enforced. It is also unclear how much has been raised for a fund meant to support ordinary Ghanaians battling chronic disease.

Meanwhile, the commission has acknowledged receipt of the petition.