An amendment to the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) that seeks to bar funding of government projects that are not captured and certified under the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) is set to be introduced in Parliament.
Titled the Public Financial Management (PMF) (Amendment) Bill, 2026, it is intended to prevent ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) from receiving public funds for regular projects that fall outside their approved strategic plans.
Under the proposed provisions, the Ministry of Finance will be denied the authority to release funds for such projects unless they have been properly incorporated into and certified under the NDPC’s development plan.
The restriction will not apply to genuine emergencies or contingencies.
The new legislation seeks to amend the PFM Act of 2016 (ACT 921), specifically to ensure that the annual national budget is directly aligned with the nation’s long-term national development plan.
Purpose of the bill
The fundamental mischief that the bill seeks to cure is the recurring practice of MDAs and MMDAs accessing government funding without securing approval for their development plans from the NDPC as required by section 10(4) of the National Development Planning (system) Act, 1994 (Act 480).
This leads to severe detrimental outcomes, including inefficient use of public resources, disintegration in the nation’s development process, duplication of efforts and disconnection between public expenditure and the goals set out in the national development plan.
The Private Members Bill (PMB) being spearheaded by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, is to close an existing loophole that allows public institutions to initiate and spend on projects considered important by their leadership but do not formally align with the national development framework.
Engagement
The stakeholder engagement was attended by staff from the MDAs and MMDAs identified as central players in the country’s fiscal chain under the existing PFM Act to provide essential expert and technical insights.
Speaking at a stakeholder engagement on the Bill held in Accra yesterday, Mr Oppong Nkrumah, who is also the Ranking Member on the Economy and Development Committee of Parliament, said the proposed legislation—nicknamed the “No Plan, No Cash Bill”—sought to close loopholes that allowed MDAs as well as MMDAs to undertake projects outside approved national development plans.
“At our Committee on the Economy and Development, the nickname we’ve given to this bill is the ‘No Plan, No Cash’ Bill.
No plan, no cash. If it’s not in the plan, we won’t get any cash,” he stated.
The amendment, he explained, was designed to prevent the Ministry of Finance from funding regular projects and programmes that have not been certified by the NDPC, except in cases of genuine emergencies or contingencies.
“The specific loophole it seeks to close is that today there’s room for ministries, departments and agencies and metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to embark on projects or programmes which are not exactly emergency projects, except that they have not been certified under the National Development Planning Commission’s plan,” he said.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said while the Public Financial Management Act, passed in 2016, had served the country well, practical experience had revealed weaknesses in its framing and implementation.
“Often, we complain that there are gaps in our legislation, often we complain that there are gaps in our governance structure, but we now have an opportunity to move beyond the complaints and not wait for somebody to fix them, but to fix them ourselves,” he said.
He said the amendment also sought to deepen Ghana’s fiscal discipline efforts and ensure stronger accountability for public funds.
“It helps us to ensure stronger accountability for every cedi of the Republic that will be spent by ministries, departments and agencies and district assemblies and also ensures that there’s closer collaboration between the National Development Planning Commission’s work and what all the other agencies of government do,” he explained.
He said the bill, when passed into law, would also help make about 30 per cent savings from the annual budget of the country.
Minister of Finance
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said while the Finance Minister had privately expressed support for ensuring MDAs had approved funding, a formal process was essential. He said a letter would be sent to facilitate a meeting where these “new thinking of stakeholders” would be shared with the minister and his technocrats, to ensure their inputs were gathered before the proposals advanced to the parliamentary committee stage.
Legislative processes
The Clerk-to-Parliament, Rev. Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror, in his opening remarks, stressed the critical role of the proposed PFMA (Amendment) Bill, 2026, in enhancing the country’s national budget credibility and achieving the nation’s long-term development goals.
He said the pre-legislative engagement was to contribute constructively to the bill’s provisions.
“The onus effort lies on all of us here today to take full advantage of this platform to ensure that the provision of this bill enhances the credibility of the national budget as an instrument for achieving Ghana’s long-term development agenda,” Rev. Djietror stated.
Source:
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