Thomas Nyarko Ampem, Deputy Finance Minister, has confirmed that an audit has helped the government save a whopping GHC159 million in allowances meant
Thomas Nyarko Ampem, Deputy Finance Minister, has confirmed that an audit has helped the government save a whopping GHC159 million in allowances meant for teacher trainees.
The Ministry of Education reported an unpaid allowance of GHC160 million to the finance ministry, but when auditors confronted the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), it finally revealed that there is no outstanding allowance as of December 2024.
When speaking in parliament about the audited government arrears on Tuesday, March 10th, the minister bemoaned the loopholes in the system and urged for effective monitoring.
“The Ministry of Education reported unpaid allowances totaling GHS160milion to teacher trainees under the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC). When auditors engaged GTEC, the agency confirmed that as of December 2024, there were no outstanding arrears. Over GHS159million would have been lost but for this audit,” Nyarko said.
“An amount of GHS6.1million appeared on the Ministry of Education’s BTA schedule at the control and the Accountant General’s department, even though the same funds had been paid by a donor partner.
“Such entries open a door for double payments and expose a dangerous pattern of weak oversight and porous coordination between donor and financial records,” Nyarko said.
Huge sums of money have been lost due to a lack of audit by the government. Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem was in a state of shock to learn that a ministry nearly stole GHS160 million from the nation’s coffers. He implored the government to be vigilant and engage with agencies to ensure transparency in the system.
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