Objective of the Study
This report analyses the Auditor-General’s report of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in Ghana from 2015 to 2020 to reveal the fiscal recklessness of public institutions vis-à-vis the public financial management (PFM) safeguards.
The goal of public financial management is to ensure effective delivery of public services to all citizens.
To carry out this task, we develop a Fiscal Recklessness Index (FRI) that effectively tries to measure the extent of fiscal discipline or otherwise of an MDA using the Auditor-General’s report.
This is complemented by qualitative analysis involving inter- views with some selected stakeholders involved in PFM in Ghana.
The rationale for the interviews was to understand why and how these irregularities keep occurring despite various legislative enactments such as the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378) and the rollout of the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), among others.
Finally, the findings from the qualitative and quantitative analyses were further analysed using a Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis (PDPEA) to identify the range of possible reform areas.
This all-encompassing approach allows for harnessing the underlying data and the perspectives of multiple stakeholders on reducing financial irregularities in Ghana and ultimately improving public service delivery.
Executive
