The Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) has rejected claims circulating on social media that the government has already spent nearly GH¢11 billion on the Accra-Kumasi Expressway before construction has begun, saying the figure reflects an accounting treatment rather than actual project expenditure.
In a statement, the department said the funds approved by Parliament for the flagship highway project remain in a dedicated Bank of Ghana account and have not been disbursed to contractors or used for construction works.
“The CAGD wishes to emphasise that these funds have not been paid to any contractor or spent on construction works. They remain in the dedicated Bank of Ghana account pending project execution,” the department said.
The clarification comes after online claims suggested the government had already spent almost GH¢11 billion on the project despite major construction yet to commence.
According to the CAGD, the Accra-Kumasi Expressway is being implemented through Accra-Kumasi Expressway Limited, a special purpose vehicle established by the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) following parliamentary approval of the concession. The company is classified as a state-owned enterprise for funding and accounting purposes.
The government earmarked proceeds from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and mineral royalties in the 2025 budget to finance the project, transferring the approved funds from the Consolidated Fund into a dedicated account at the central bank.
The department said the accounting treatment applied to the transfer follows Ghana’s Public Financial Management framework, under which transfers from the Consolidated Fund to state-owned enterprises are recorded as grant expenditure in the accounts of central government and as grant revenue in the books of the receiving entity.
“This is a standard accounting treatment and does not mean the receiving entity has spent the funds,” the CAGD said.
It added that the same accounting principle applies to transfers made to public institutions such as the District Assemblies Common Fund, the Ghana Education Trust Fund and the National Health Insurance Authority.
The department also sought to separate preparatory activities from the project’s financing, noting that the ongoing right-of-way clearing being undertaken by the Ghana Armed Forces is not being financed from the funds earmarked for the expressway.
“It is therefore incorrect to conclude that because the transfer appears as expenditure in the accounts of Central Government, the funds have already been spent on the construction of the Accra-Kumasi Expressway,” the CAGD said.
The Accra-Kumasi Expressway is one of the government’s flagship infrastructure projects and is intended to improve connectivity between two large commercial centres while addressing longstanding funding and execution challenges associated with large-scale road projects.
