The Minority in Parliament has accused the government of violating the Constitution by allegedly releasing GH¢350 million approved for flood relief through an unauthorised public account after the Contingency Fund became the subject of court-ordered garnishee proceedings.
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Wednesday, Deputy Minority Leader, Patricia Appiagyei, alleged that the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr. Dominic Ayine, directed the Bank of Ghana to release the funds despite acknowledging that the Contingency Fund was under attachment by a court.
According to her, a letter dated July 1, 2026, signed by the Attorney-General and addressed to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana confirmed that the Contingency Fund was the subject of garnishee proceedings. She said the Attorney-General nevertheless advised the central bank to proceed with the release of the funds because of the national emergency caused by recent floods.
Mrs. Appiagyei argued that court orders cannot be overridden by the opinion of a minister, insisting that the appropriate legal course would have been to apply to the court to vary or set aside the attachment before any funds were released.
She contended that Parliament’s Finance Committee had approved the withdrawal of GH¢350 million specifically from the Contingency Fund on June 29, 2026. However, if the fund remained under garnishee attachment, she said the money could only have been withdrawn from another public account.
“If that is what occurred, then Parliament was never asked to approve that alternative source, and the constitutional requirements governing withdrawals from public funds were bypassed,” she stated.
The Deputy Minority Leader questioned the Ministry of Finance’s announcement that the funds had been released from the Contingency Fund and challenged the government to publish records from the Bank of Ghana and the Controller and Accountant-General to establish the true source of the money.
She maintained that if the funds were withdrawn from an account other than the Contingency Fund, the transaction would amount to an unauthorised withdrawal contrary to Articles 177 and 178 of the Constitution and the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
Mrs. Appiagyei also questioned why Parliament was allegedly not informed that the Contingency Fund was already under garnishee proceedings when approval for the emergency expenditure was sought.
According to her, withholding such information from Parliament undermines financial accountability and parliamentary oversight.
The Minority is demanding that the government discloses the court handling the garnishee proceedings, the judgment debt involved, when the Republic was served with the court processes and what legal steps the Attorney-General’s office took to challenge the attachment.
It also wants the government to identify the exact account from which the GH¢350 million was withdrawn, the date of the transaction, the official who authorised it and the legal authority under which the payment was made.
The caucus further called on Parliament to summon the Attorney-General and the Minister for Finance to produce the garnishee order, the Attorney-General’s July 1 letter and all correspondence exchanged among the Attorney-General’s Department, the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana and the Controller and Accountant-General relating to the transaction.
It also urged the Governor of the Bank of Ghana to publicly state whether the central bank acted on the Attorney-General’s directive and clarify the source of the funds. In addition, the Minority called on the Auditor-General to undertake a special audit of the flood relief disbursement and submit its findings to Parliament.
Mrs. Appiagyei stressed that the Minority supports the prompt release of relief to victims of the devastating floods, which claimed lives and displaced thousands across the country. However, she insisted that emergency interventions must still comply with the Constitution and Ghana’s public financial management laws.
She maintained that the issues raised were not intended to delay assistance to flood victims but to ensure that public funds are managed transparently and in accordance with the law. The government had not publicly responded to the allegations at the time of filing this report.
