Ghana is launching a major push to clean up financial management across its local governments, pairing up with the World Bank and the Swiss government to figure out why local assemblies continue to struggle with managing public funds.
The new initiative, comprising a Public Financial Management (PFM) Review across all 261 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and deep-dive audits in 10 selected districts, aims to look past paperwork and fix the root causes of systemic financial mismanagment.
Speaking on behalf of Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson at the launch in Accra, Ministry Chief Director Patrick Nomo did not mince words about the gap between national policy and local reality.
“Strong financial management at the national level means very little if systems fail at the local level,” Nomo said, emphasizing that local government is where citizens actually feel the impact of the state budget. He urged evaluation teams to drop generic checklists and investigate why the same financial bottlenecks keep popping up year after year.
Nomo added that simply sending money down to local assemblies is not enough. Without deliberate efforts to train local managers and build up their capacity to maintain infrastructure, public investments quickly go to waste. Representatives from international funding partners echoed the need for real-world results.
Mrs. Janine Walz, Head of Cooperation at Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), reminded officials that good governance is ultimately judged by whether kids get a better education and clinics have decent healthcare. She called on local institutions to open their books fully so the process builds genuine public trust.
Echoing her point, Raymond Muhula, Lead Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank, noted that as more taxpayer money gets decentralized to local districts, the standard of basic services must rise to match it.
The joint review will evaluate how assemblies handle budgeting, collect local revenue, manage procurement, and enforce oversight mechanisms, with the goal of turning findings into concrete policy changes.
