Auditor-General Dr Pamela Graham said only 41.8 per cent of audit recommendations reported by 21 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in Ghana have been fully implemented.
She said the figures highlight a persistent challenge in public financial management: audit findings and recommendations are not always translated into timely corrective action.
Speaking at the African Organization of Public Accounts Committees (AFROPAC) conference in Accra on Monday, November 2, Dr Graham said Ghana’s performance reflects a wider accountability challenge across Africa.
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She cited the Ministry of Finance’s 2024 Consolidated MDAs Annual Budget Performance Report, which recorded a full implementation rate of 41.8 per cent among the 21 institutions assessed.
The Auditor-General also referred to audit implementation figures from other African countries to illustrate the scale of the problem.
According to her, Rwanda’s Auditor-General reported an implementation rate of 65 per cent in the 2025 annual audit report, while South Africa recorded 31 per cent of recommendations as implemented in its 2024/2025 integrated annual report.
In North Africa, Morocco’s Court of Accounts reported that only 18 per cent of 300 recommendations scheduled for implementation by the end of 2024 had been fully implemented.
Dr Graham, however, cautioned that the figures relate to different reporting populations and should not be treated as a direct comparison.
According to her, the statistics nevertheless point to a common problem across the continent: the failure to translate audit findings and parliamentary recommendations into sustained corrective action.
The Auditor-General warned against treating parliamentary sessions to discuss public sector financial statements as an end in themselves.
She argued that public institutions must move beyond explaining audit queries to demonstrating that identified weaknesses have been corrected and recommendations implemented.
Dr Graham urged Parliament and Public Accounts Committees to pay attention to whether recommendations have been implemented, financial weaknesses corrected, funds owed to the state recovered and internal controls strengthened.
She challenged oversight institutions to determine whether the same financial irregularities are becoming less likely to occur in subsequent audit cycles.
According to her, allowing the same weaknesses to recur year after year undermines the effectiveness of audit processes, particularly when institutions become better at explaining irregularities without eliminating their underlying causes.
She called for a shift from a culture of merely reporting audit findings to one focused on resolving them.
Dr Graham said the effectiveness of public sector accounting and parliamentary oversight should ultimately be measured by improvements in public financial management and the responsible use of public resources.
She urged African Supreme Audit Institutions and Public Accounts Committees to strengthen collaboration and ensure that accountability mechanisms produce tangible results for citizens.