IMANI Africa says the Finance Ministry is responsible for the 99.6 per cent (¢9.2 billion) tax irregularities.

This tax irregularity is recorded from the year 2015 to 2020. This is contained in IMANI Africa’s 2^nd Fiscal Recklessness Index 2020 Project.

According to the report, the Finance Ministry “(and subsidiary agencies) tops the list of MDAs as the most fiscally reckless MDA on an annual basis and also over the six years between 2015 and 2020.”

It added that the Ministry of Finance had the highest combined Fiscal Recklessness Score (FRS) of 0.8797.

The report noted that two key irregularities that account for Ministry being the top fiscal recklessness are; tax irregularities and cash irregularities.

“For example, the Finance Ministry is responsible for 99.63% (GH₵9.10 billion) of the combined GH₵9.12  billion tax irregularities from 2015 to 2020.

“Likewise, the Finance Ministry accounted for 80.10% (GH₵2.35  billion) of the combined GH₵2.93 billion cash irregularities from 2015 to 2020 — this trend remains the same on a normalised data basis,” it stated.

According to the Fiscal Recklessness Index 2020, The Health Ministry follows as the second most fiscally reckless institution with an FRS of 0.1007.

“The Health Ministry overtook the Finance Ministry as the most fiscally reckless MDA in 2020 (FRS: 0.5510 vs 0.3384 for the Finance Ministry).”

The third, fourth and fifth most fiscally reckless MDAs over the six years were the Ministry of  Roads  and  Highways (FRS:  0.0284), Ministry of  Employment (FRS: 0.0184), and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FRS: 0.091).