Civil society organisations have urged government to use the 2027 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to significantly strengthen Ghana’s accountability and anti-corruption architecture, warning that persistent gaps in institutional capacity, resources, procurement and access to information are undermining effective oversight of public funds.

The call was made during the CSOs’ 2027 Budget Inputs engagement in Accra, ahead of government’s planned scale-up of infrastructure spending under the Big Push programme. The group said without deliberate budgetary provisions to fix systemic weaknesses, increased public expenditure could worsen corruption risks and erode public confidence.

Speaking at the engagement, Solomon Nyankah, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, said the 2027 Budget must provide adequate resources and greater operational autonomy to institutions mandated to promote accountability, investigate wrongdoing, prosecute offenders and audit public spending.

He argued that the challenge is not limited to the Office of the Special Prosecutor. According to him, several institutions responsible for accountability, investigation, prosecution and audit continue to operate with inadequate funding, staffing deficits, and constraints that weaken their effectiveness.

The CSOs are therefore calling for stronger institutional safeguards backed by guaranteed financing in the 2027 Budget. They want clear budget lines for accountability bodies to shield them from delays and political interference, and mechanisms that allow them to recruit and retain skilled personnel. Mr Nyankah said operational independence is critical if these institutions are to act without fear or favour.

“When an institution is under-resourced, it cannot investigate thoroughly. When it lacks autonomy, its decisions can be influenced. The budget must address both.”
Mr. Nyankah

Strengthening Ghana’s Whistle Blower Regime in Recovery of Public Resources

The group also wants government to prioritize the strengthening of Ghana’s whistle blower protection regime. Although legislation exists to protect and incentivize whistle blowers, Mr Nyankah said implementation remains weak, particularly around provisions intended to reward individuals whose disclosures result in the recovery of public resources. “As part of this, we want the government to pay attention to, especially the provision that talks about the 10 per cent reward to whistle blowers,” he said.

He explained that the credibility of whistle blower protections depends on whether the legal incentives and financial mechanisms supporting them are actually operationalised. Without timely payment of rewards and effective protection from retaliation, potential whistle blowers will remain reluctant to come forward, he added.

The CSO’s established the importance of a dedicated fund within the budget to support witness protection, legal aid for whistle blowers, and public education to encourage reporting of corruption. They further recommended that the fixing of procurement loopholes and digitizing the system; public procurement was identified as one of the highest-risk areas for corruption and value-for-money losses.

Mr Nyankah said recent CSO monitoring around procurement uncovered concerns involving corruption, bribery and kickbacks, which point to the need for stronger scrutiny of procurement methods and closer compliance with the Public Procurement Act. The data reviewed by the group, competitive tendering accounts for a larger number of procurement activities. However, the monetary value attached to restricted tendering is disproportionately high.

To address this, the CSOs are calling for a deliberate shift toward more open and competitive procurement in the 2027 Budget. They want the Ministry of Finance and the Public Procurement Authority to enforce stricter justification requirements for sole-sourcing and restricted tendering, and to publish reasons for such methods within a set timeframe.

The group also recommended stronger compliance mechanisms, including regular audits of procurement processes and sanctions for breaches of the Act. And on technology, the CSOs called for the full integration of the Ghana Electronic Procurement System with the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System. They argued that such integration could strengthen real time controls by linking procurement decisions more closely with expenditure authorisation and financial management, thereby reducing opportunities for manipulation.

However, they cautioned that digitization alone will not solve the problem. “Technology must be matched with capacity,” Mr Nyankah said. The group wants the 2027 Budget to provide funding for training of procurement officers, reliable internet connectivity for public institutions, and logistical support so that electronic procurement systems are used effectively rather than maintaining platforms that are poorly implemented in practice.

The Guarantee Transparency and Citizen Oversight Big Push Project

The Guarantee Transparency and Citizen Oversight of Big Push Project also features strongly in the CSOs’ budget proposals. The group called for the timely publication of information on budget execution, procurement, public investment and audits in formats that are accessible and understandable to ordinary citizens.

The experience, according to the CSOs, illustrates how limited access to procurement and project information weakens independent monitoring and creates room for abuse. With government preparing to scale up infrastructure spending under the Big Push programme, the group said access to information has become even more urgent. Citizens and civil society organisations must be able to track procurement, project costs, contractors, implementation timelines and expenditure if the programme is to command confidence and deliver value for money.

“Access to information is something that is key. So, as much as possible, government and its agencies should ensure that they provide adequate information to the citizens so that we can also monitor whatever the government is doing.’’
Mr. Nyankah

The CSOs recommended that the 2027 Budget mandate the proactive publication of contract awards, implementation reports and audit findings on a single open portal. They also want funding for citizen engagement mechanisms that allow communities to provide feedback on projects in their areas. Beyond transparency, the group called for stronger coordination among anti-corruption, investigative, prosecutorial and audit institutions. Clearer institutional mandates and better information sharing, they argued, could reduce fragmentation, prevent duplication and improve the speed with which corruption-related cases move from investigation to sanction.

For the Big Push programme specifically, the CSOs want stronger public investment management systems covering project appraisal, selection, monitoring and value-for-money assessment. The concern is that ambitious infrastructure spending can create fiscal and governance risks if projects are selected without adequate appraisal or implemented without sufficient public scrutiny. Taken together, the recommendations place governance at the centre of the 2027 fiscal debate. For the CSOs, public expenditure should not be assessed solely by the size of budget allocations, but also by the quality of the institutions responsible for ensuring that those resources are properly contracted, spent and accounted for.

Their message to government is that the 2027 Budget should do more than fund projects and programmes. It should strengthen the accountability systems that determine whether public resources are protected, whether corruption risks are reduced, and whether expenditure ultimately translates into measurable outcomes for citizens.

As Parliament prepares to debate the 2027 Budget, the CSOs said they will continue to engage lawmakers and the Ministry of Finance to ensure that anti-corruption and accountability measures are not treated as an afterthought, but as a core pillar of Ghana’s economic policy.