The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Works and Housing Committee, Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, has questioned the Finance Minister’s claim that a court order freezing Ghana’s constitutional contingency fund prevented the government from accessing money for recent flood relief in Accra.
Reacting to the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review, in which Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said the contingency fund had been garnisheed by a court order, the former Local Government Minister said the explanation was surprising and raised serious concerns about coordination within government.
He questioned how Cabinet could have approved emergency flood response measures without knowing that the country’s only constitutionally mandated emergency fund was inaccessible.
“That’s quite a big surprise. I mean, the aftermath of the rains and the subsequent overwhelming flooding that we saw, every step that the government took, we in Parliament were made to believe, was as a result of a government emergency response born out of Cabinet deliberations,” he said.
Mr Mensah Korsah argued that if Cabinet had discussed and approved the interventions, the Attorney-General, as the government’s chief legal adviser and a Cabinet member, should have informed ministers about the legal restrictions on the fund.
“If the Cabinet of Ghana could convene and brainstorm on measures to mitigate subsequent floods and decided to assess money from the contingency fund and it never occurred to Cabinet, of which the chief legal advisor to the President, Attorney-General, is a member, and they did not know that the contingency fund had a garnishee order, then it’s quite strange. Absolutely strange.”
He said the explanation suggested weak coordination among ministries and agencies responsible for disaster response.
“This particular claim raises a lot of questions that they either do not work together, they work on their own or that synergy, that working together as a government is not there.”
The MP also dismissed the Finance Minister’s allegations that the previous Akufo-Addo administration mismanaged the Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project, describing the claims as heavy untruths and complete falsehoods.
Citing World Bank implementation reports, Mr Mensah Korsah maintained that there was no evidence of misuse of project funds.
“At nowhere does the World Bank find any wrongdoing or misuse of money. No, you don’t find it anywhere.”
Instead, he argued that the reports pointed to delays by the Finance Ministry in releasing funds for the flood mitigation project, urging the government to address implementation challenges rather than engage in political blame.
