Deputy Minister for Finance, Thomas Nyarko Ampem, has justified the government’s plan to establish a Value for Money Office, as outlined in the 2026 budget, saying it is critical to curb waste and control inflated project costs.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Friday, November 14, Mr Ampem explained that the current system lacks the technical capacity to determine whether government projects are priced correctly.

“Even with the Public Procurement Authority now, there was a value for money agency called the Crown Agents that was working alongside PPA, but they are out now,” he said.

He added that the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) can only check compliance, not value.

“The Public Procurement Authority would make sure that you are going through the right approach and processes and all that. They do not have the capacity to determine value for money.”

According to Mr Ampem, the proposed office must be staffed with engineers and other specialists capable of assessing projects in detail.

“This value for money office that we intend to establish must have engineers to be able to value and set a standard that a project of this nature must cost X amount between X minimum and Y maximum,” he explained.

He stressed the urgency of the move, citing procurement abuses and inflated prices.

“Procurement abuses and inflation of prices are making us lose huge sums of money. So it is very, very important.”

The Deputy Minister also spoke on broader economic measures in the budget, noting that some job-creation strategies were not fully detailed during the presentation.

“We as a government will only be able to use government policies, government procurement to enhance job creation. We cannot go directly into employing many, many, many people… the fiscal space will not allow that.”

He highlighted the VAT rationalisation policy as a key step to support businesses and enable expansion.

“This VAT was killing a lot of businesses… so we are doing this to give incentives to you, to everybody, to be able to have some respite.”