Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei has committed to cracking the whip on ministers who fail to stick to their budgets.

This followed a call from stakeholders at the launch of a report on governance.

The stakeholders said government needed to step up in ensuring compliance when it comes to good corporate governance practices.

The report by KPMG and ACCA showed that Ghana ranked 12th out of 15 countries accessed for good corporate governance systems.

Taking a cue from the report, Dr. Akoto Osei committed to ensuring that compliance began with government institutions with one key area being budget spending.

He said “the law says that any person who exceeds what is budgeted for is liable to sanctions so if you tell me a Ministry has overspent, the minister has to be charged or the chief spending officer or whoever made it happen has to  be liable for sanctions as the law said .

When further asked if his Ministry will pursue the law in the future he responded “ yes we will and very soon you will hear cases like that.”

Dr. Akoto Osei,“  We will continue to use our offices to try and help myself and my colleagues to do what is right and impact it unto the other public institutions  because it has a relationship with growth.

“But with bad corporate practices you will realize the growth is not sustained so we want to use the findings of the report to change things moving forward because Ghana being ranked 12th is shameful,” he said.

Partner and advisor for KPMG, Andy Akoto said in terms of laws and policies, there is the need for some laws to be reviewed and properly enforced.  

He said, “We’ve seen the types of challenges that are playing out in terms of the management of our state institutions likewise the challenges that are playing out in the private sector like the shake up in the banking sector and all, so clearly we don’t have a choice and we can’t afford to be complacent”

Mr. Akoto said, “we really need to work in a concerted manner to not only enhance the codes that were issued so many years ago for instance the SEC guidelines on corporate governance issued so many years ago and the company’s act that have been issued since 1962.”

He said, “So it’s about time we reviewed them and ensure enforceability if we want to see a strong economy”

It is expected that the application of good corporate governance will enhance foreign investments to the country. The report was under the theme ‘balancing rules and flexibility for growth.’