Isaac Adongo, chairman of Parliament’s Select Committee on Finance, has urged Ghana to introduce legal reforms that would guarantee long-term funding for the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC).
Speaking at an event marking PIAC’s 15th anniversary on 19 August 2026, Mr Adongo said the committee’s finances should not rely on the personal commitment or discretion of individual finance ministers.
He argued that placing PIAC’s funding arrangements on a clear legal footing would protect the institution from financial restrictions and allow it to continue fulfilling its statutory oversight role.
“We need to have a mechanism that puts it in law, a funding arrangement for PIAC and not dependent on a good minister who is willing to support PIAC,” he said.
Mr Adongo said making the arrangement legally enforceable should be the “next stage of the conversation” if PIAC was to remain financially sustainable over the long term.
PIAC was created in September 2011 under Section 51 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815). Its role is to promote transparency and accountability in the management of Ghana’s petroleum revenues.
The committee was originally financed through the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA). That source of funding was removed after amendments to the Petroleum Revenue Management Act abolished the ABFA and redirected the money to a special account supporting the government’s Big Push programme.
As a result, PIAC no longer has a legally protected funding stream.
Mr Adongo acknowledged that the current Finance Minister had shown strong support for the committee. However, he said PIAC needed a system that would remain dependable even when governments, ministers or other office holders changed.
The call comes as PIAC reflects on 15 years of monitoring the use of petroleum revenues and reporting on whether those funds have been managed in the public interest.
PIAC chairman Richard Ellimah said the committee had strengthened public examination of Ghana’s petroleum income through statutory reports, inspections of projects and direct engagement with citizens and communities.
He said PIAC had also held public forums and contributed to policy discussions, ensuring that concerns about petroleum revenue management remained part of the national debate.
“These interventions have contributed to strengthening transparency and accountability in the management of Ghana’s petroleum revenues,” Mr Ellimah said.
He nevertheless recognised that the committee had faced difficulties during its existence and had needed to respond to changing circumstances while continuing to carry out its legal mandate.
Professor Peter Quartey, an economist at the University of Ghana, called for the oversight approach developed by PIAC to be applied to the management of Ghana’s other mineral resources.
He said extending comparable transparency and accountability requirements to other natural resources could help improve how the country’s mineral wealth was managed.
Prof Quartey praised PIAC for drawing attention to weaknesses in the use of petroleum revenues, including instances where projects were recorded on paper but could not be located in the communities where they were supposedly being implemented.
He also pointed to PIAC’s continuing efforts to trace abandoned projects financed with oil revenue. He said that work would provide further evidence to support public accountability.
According to Prof Quartey, PIAC’s 15-year record shows the importance of independent monitoring in ensuring that Ghana’s natural-resource revenues are used for their intended purposes.
By Coffie Mawuedem Noel
