Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has raised concerns over the garnisheeing of Ghana’s constitutional contingency fund, describing it as the country’s only emergency fund created under the Constitution.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express hours after presenting the Mid-Year Budget to Parliament on Thursday, Dr Ato Forson said the development prevented the government from accessing money approved for flood and disaster mitigation.

“Let me put it this way: contingency money for the Republic of Ghana. One is a creation of the Constitution, Article 1771 of the Constitution, and this is the only emergency fund the Constitution created for the Republic of Ghana,” he said.

He explained that the fund, which is controlled by Parliament’s Finance Committee, had been set up to provide resources during emergencies.

“That fund is under the control of the Finance Committee of Parliament, and so when you create that money, and you pay into that money, when there is an emergency, you have to go to the Finance Committee as Minister of Finance to get approval before you can take money from that contingency fund,” he said.

Dr Ato Forson disclosed that the account had about ¢500 million, but government could not access it after it was hit with a court order.

“We have ¢500 million in that account. It’s a permanent account at the Bank of Ghana, and it is there. You go in when there is an emergency, subject to the approval of Parliament, and then you can go and take it,” he said.

According to him, government had another source of emergency funding through the contingency vault managed by the Finance Minister.

“The contingency vote has ¢361 million in that account. That is for the control of the Minister of Finance, and inform Parliament how you use it,” he said.

Dr Ato Forson said after the flooding incident on June 29, President John Mahama directed him to seek parliamentary approval for funds to support disaster mitigation efforts.

“When the unfortunate incident happened on June 29, the President directed that I should go to Parliament and ask Parliament to release ¢350 million for disaster mitigation and flood mitigation,” he said.

He said Parliament’s Finance Committee approved the request, but the transfer was blocked after officials discovered that the constitutional contingency fund had been garnisheed.

“Unfortunately, when I got that approval and instructed the Controller and Accountant General to transfer same to the disaster management committee, we found out that the account, the constitutional fund, the only emergency fund that this republic has, has been garnisheed by a high court order,” he said.

“Simply put, you can’t access that money,” he added.

The Finance Minister said he questioned how the country’s emergency fund could be subjected to such an order.

“I protested, and I said, ‘Hang on a second, are you telling me that the only constitutional emergency fund set aside for the country, for all of us, so that if there is an emergency, government can access those resources to fix it has been garnisheed, and who did that?’” he said.

Dr Ato Forson said the Attorney General would be best placed to explain the circumstances surrounding the garnishee order.

“I think that the Attorney General will be the right person to answer that question,” he said.

He added that steps had been taken to challenge the order but warned that Ghana needed clear laws to regulate what state funds could be garnisheed.

“I know that the Attorney General has taken steps to quash that garnishee,” he said.

“But in the meantime, I think this issue brings to question the need for us to have legislation to define what can be garnisheed and what cannot be garnisheed, because it is becoming one too many,” he added.

Dr Ato Forson said the situation exposed the risks facing state emergency resources if garnishee orders are not properly regulated.

“The challenge is that this was for emergency response, and it was garnisheed,” he said.

He explained that government eventually relied on the Finance Minister’s contingency vault to release the flood mitigation funds.

“As Minister of Finance, I had ¢361 million in the contingency vote, Parliament, and the request from His Excellency the President was to release ¢350. It is more than enough, and so I made money available not from the contingency fund, the Parliament-controlled contingency fund, but from the Minister of Finance’s contingency vault,” he said.

Dr Ato Forson confirmed that the ¢350 million had been released.

“I gave 350 million to the same amount as it was,” he said.

“It was released that same day. I did that,” he added.