The Minority in Parliament has described the 2026 Budget Statement and Economic Policy as fiscal deception, with the government effectively choosing accounting aesthetics over economic substance.
It said the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, had weaponised underspending as a tool of false prudence.
At a press conference in Parliament yesterday to present Minority’s preliminary position on the 2026 budget and policy statement, former Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said by systematically failing to release funds for approved projects, Dr Forson was creating artificial savings that masked his inability to mobilise revenue or manage debt sustainably, saying that “this is not fiscal discipline but is fiscal deception”.
While acknowledging the budget’s emphasis on economic growth and development, Dr Adam expressed concern that allocations for capital expenditure remain too low to drive meaningful infrastructure-led transformation.
“Capital expenditure in 2026 is set at only 3.6 per cent of GDP, far below the level required for significant developmental impact,” he noted.
Dr Adam, who is also the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee in Parliament, stressed that the rigid budgetary commitments continue to dominate government spending, limiting the room for transformative investments. Wages account for 5.7 per cent of GDP, interest payments 3.6 per cent, and statutory transfers about 4 per cent.
“These rigid items consume more than two-thirds of total spending, leaving very limited room for transformative investments.
In reality, this 2026 Budget is not investment-driven and masks serious challenges.
“Is it not curious that the much-talked-about “Nkoko-Nkitinkiti” was just launched this week, even though the 2025 budget provisioned for it since March 2025, a clear example of how the government is struggling to implement its priority programmes,” he said.
Water down expectation
In the view of Dr Amin Adam, road contractors, businesses, and other providers of government services were suffering from the current minister’s self-created liquidity drought, while his officials celebrated restraint.
In time, the actual impact of the policies employed during this minister’s “honeymoon period” would hit Ghanaians, he warned.
“It also shows that there is no structural shift as the composition of the budget remains the same.
We urge Ghanaians to seriously manage expectations as we are in for another year of disappointment,” Dr Adam said.
He added that in the 2025 budget, the government allocated $279 million to GoldBod to purchase gold.
He, however, said that the amount had not been disbursed.
“Rather, the Bank of Ghana has been pre-financing GoldBod’s purchases of gold, including purchases of gold from galamsey operators.
“The Bank of Ghana must come clean on how much money it has printed to finance GoldBod.
“This is important because it amounts to central bank financing of the government, a practice frowned upon by Ghana’s programme with the IMF,” he said.
Abandonment
Earlier last Thursday, the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin, also stated that the Finance Minister started his lamentations in March this year and the Minority were minded to forgive him because he was new on the job.
“Today, after several months on the job, he came to repeat the same part two of his lamentation,” the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, said.
Reacting to the budget statement on the floor of Parliament shortly after the Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, had laid it, the Minority Leader, who rose to second the motion to admit the budget, pointed to the empty public gallery as an indication of how the business community decided to abandon him.
“All these empty chairs are not what we have known in the past,” he said.
The Minority Leader said the minister attempted to provide some figures and gave a long list of allocations in the 2025 budget statement.
He cited how the Director of Operations at the presidency, Mustapha Bandi, publicly claimed that the Presidency gave GH¢20,000 to each of the 66 constituencies every month.
He, therefore, sought to know where the government got all such money from, saying the Minister of Finance failed to account for that in the budget he presented.
“Mr Mustafa Bandi, the Deputy General Secretary of the NDC and Director of Operations at the Presidency, publicly said that every month the Presidency gives GH¢20,000 to each constituency.
“The Minister of Finance has not accounted for this and how that money is given, but time will tell,” he said.
Paltry release to Parliament
The MP for Effutu said the Finance Minister failed to consider the work of Parliament.
He described as a paltry sum, the budget Dr Forson provided to Parliament, which was the only body that played the role of oversight.
“Parliament is an important organ of state and the Finance Minister himself is a Member of Parliament, yet he fails to recognise Parliament and its work and you say we should hail you,” he said.
With people all over the country, including Teshie and Nungua, asking when the government would implement the 24-hour economy to create jobs, he also accused Dr Forson of failing to tell the House anything about the 24-hour economy.
“Where are the one job, three shifts,” he said, expressing concern over how ministers of state were unable to visit their constituencies to face the wrath of the people due to lack of jobs.
Source: graphic.com
