One bane on Ghana’s economic growth and development is high levels of corruption, which are draining the meagre resources of the country.
Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) estimates that the country loses about $3 billion annually to corruption, an amount which is the same as the current amount Ghana is receiving from the ongoing IMF bailout program.
More profound is the latest 2024 Auditor-General’s report on state-owned institutions, departments, and agencies, which revealed that total financial irregularities in 2024 amounted to GHC18.4 billion, equivalent to $1.8 billion.
Over the years, there have been a lot of efforts to clamp down on these financial crimes. But these corruption scandals come at a huge cost to the national budget.
Amid the efforts, the financial crimes are deepening.
Are Ghana’s courts better positioned to help the country fight these numerous corruption scandals? IMANI Africa, in its latest Criticality Analysis on the subject, has outlined a number of critical legal and economic reforms to position the country’s court on a pedestal that helps to recover the loot.
Budgets Are Rising, But Very Few Results
IMANI Africa reveals a strange twist in Ghana’s fight against corruption. IMANI says the louder the scandals grow, the more money we pour into fighting them, and yet, the victories remain painfully scarce.
From the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), annual budgets have swollen like overfed goats, yet neither agency can confidently claim a season of harvest.
The timing couldn’t be more ironic. In just a few months, Ghanaians have been rocked by a string of corruption exposés: a $28 million extortion case in the fuel sector, sprawling fraud networks within the Ghana Education Service, and criminal rings right inside Customs.
The headlines keep coming. So do the allocations. But not the convictions.
Chasing Modern Criminals with Colonial Tools
At the heart of this disconnect is a capacity crisis. IMANI maintains that anti-corruption agencies may be rich on paper but remain poor in tools, personnel, and technology.
Investigators are overloaded, armed with limited forensic muscle, and forced to cherry-pick only the juiciest cases, the ones likely to grab media attention and justify their budgets.
Meanwhile, many complex financial crimes, often hidden behind layers of shell companies, offshore accounts, and digital footprints, slide quietly through the system, untouched and unbothered.
Even when cases do make it to court, the drama fizzles fast. Charge sheets often read like a legal dictionary, naming laws broken without telling the public how they were broken. The storytelling is lost, and with it, the urgency. Summary charges, plea bargains, and procedural delays become the norm.
Justice Delayed Is Justice Dismantled
This mismatch between the complexity of modern financial crime and the slow, under-resourced response of Ghana’s legal system is doing more than draining the economy, IMANI says, it’s draining public trust.
Every delayed trial, every confusing charge sheet, every high-profile case that ends in a whisper rather than a bang tells Ghanaians one thing: grand corruption pays, and justice is optional.
It’s not enough to arrest people. The courts must convict meaningfully. But they can’t do that when they’re stuck in an analog past while criminals race ahead with digital tricks.
Synchronizing the System: The Way Forward
According to IMANI Africa’s latest Criticality Analysis, the fix is straightforward but requires political courage and institutional coordination.
First, Ghana needs statutory timelines for financial crime proceedings, no more cases dragging on for years while suspects buy time and sympathy.
Second, prosecutors must be mandated to file detailed, narrative-based indictments, telling the full story of how funds were stolen, who benefited, and what the ripple effects are.
Third, the judiciary must invest in an integrated e-filing and digital case management system, reducing bureaucratic slowness and minimizing opportunities for tampering.
Lastly, there must be proper funding for specialized forensic units and judicial training to match the sophistication of today’s economic crimes.
Turning the Courtroom Into a Deterrent
Ghana is not short on laws. Nor is it short on institutions. What it lacks is synchronization. Until the prosecution arm and judiciary march in lockstep, corruption will always be two steps ahead. The courts must not remain passive observers while the nation bleeds. They must become the very place where corruption fears to tread.
Because when crime evolves and the law doesn’t, justice becomes a performance, not a promise. And Ghana can no longer afford the cost of that performance.
