A massive verification exercise by the Ghana Audit Service, conducted in partnership with international audit firms EY and PwC, has exposed a major procurement scandal involving the nation’s "dry spell" relief interventions.

Presenting the findings of the audit into GH¢68.7 billion worth of government arrears and payables on Tuesday, 10th March 2026, Deputy Minister for Finance Thomas Nyarko Ampem revealed that critical food supplies intended to mitigate the impact of the 2024 dry spell were either unaccounted for or never delivered.

The missing rice and the maize mirage

The audit focused on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s (MoFA) management of emergency food supplies, uncovering discrepancies that suggest systemic corruption:

The Missing Rice: In 2024, the government paid for 34,000 metric tonnes (MT) of rice to support the public during the dry spell. However, records confirm that MoFA received and distributed only 24,000MT. To date, 10,000MT of rice—which has been fully paid for by the state—remains completely unaccounted for.

The Maize Fraud: The audit exposed an even more staggering anomaly regarding a contract to supply 100,000MT of maize. While the Ministry of Finance was billed GH¢771.2 million based on official claims that the full order had been delivered, auditors found that only 11,900MT actually reached the intended distribution channels.

The role of internal audit

Perhaps most alarming to the House was the revelation that these fraudulent claims were not merely the work of external contractors but were facilitated by internal failures.

The Deputy Minister noted that the Stores Receipt Advice (SRA)—the document used to trigger payment for the 100,000MT of maize—was supported by a checklist that had been formally certified by the internal auditor of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. This certification provided the veneer of legitimacy required to push the fraudulent payment through the Ministry of Finance.

A call for systemic overhaul

The disclosure of the "dry spell" expenditure anomalies serves as a primary example of the "rotten system" described by the Finance Ministry.

The Deputy Minister reiterated that under the Mahama administration, the era of processing payments based on "fictitious store receipt advice" is over.

As the government moves to recover these losses, the findings have triggered an urgent call for:

-Criminal investigations into the officials who certified the fraudulent maize receipts.

-Immediate stock audits across all regional warehouses to locate the missing 10,000MT of rice.

-Stricter procurement oversight to ensure that all future "emergency" interventions are verified by independent third parties before payment.

The Ministry of Finance has confirmed that these findings have been passed to the Attorney-General, as part of the broader effort to account for the GH¢8.1 billion in total arrears fraud exposed by the Audit Service.