Ghana’s public sector irregularities hit GH¢5.2 billion as state firms fail to pay taxes
Ghana’s Auditor-General reported record GH¢5.2 billion in financial irregularities in 2025, with unpaid taxes by state institutions accounting for 92% of the total.
Ghana recorded a record GH¢5.2 billion in financial irregularities across its ministries, departments and agencies in 2025, according to the Auditor-General’s latest report. The figure represents a 156% increase compared with the previous year and is the highest level recorded in at least five years.
Tax-related irregularities reached about GH¢4.8 billion, representing 92% of all irregularities identified during the audit. More than GH¢3 billion of that amount comprised outstanding tax obligations owed by just ten state institutions in 2024. In other words, more than half of all irregularities reported in 2025 originated from taxes that were due the previous year but had not been remitted.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) recorded the largest outstanding liability. The power distributor failed to remit approximately GH¢1.4 billion in taxes, representing nearly half of the total unpaid tax obligations identified among the ten institutions. The Ghana Airports Company Limited recorded the second largest obligation at about GH¢430 million, followed by the Produce Buying Company Limited with approximately GH¢330 million. Other institutions cited include GIHOC Distilleries, Tema Oil Refinery, AirtelTigo Ghana and Graphic Communications Limited.
While unpaid taxes dominated the report, the Auditor-General also identified irregularities across other categories. Cash irregularities amounted to approximately GH¢410 million, while loan irregularities stood at GH¢29 million. Payroll irregularities totalled about GH¢19 million, procurement irregularities totalled about GH¢1.1 million, and contract irregularities totalled about GH¢3.3 million. Collectively, these categories accounted for only a small fraction of the overall irregularities relative to the scale of the outstanding tax obligations.
The findings raise serious questions about tax compliance within Ghana’s public sector itself, particularly as the government continues to pursue broader revenue mobilisation reforms across the economy.
The Nigerian stake is clear. Ghana’s struggle with tax compliance mirrors Nigeria’s own challenges. Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio remains among the lowest in the world, and the government has been attempting to expand the tax base with limited success. Ghana’s experience shows that even state-owned enterprises can become tax deadbeats, undermining the government’s fiscal position.
From a Nigerian vantage point, the Ghanaian report is a warning. If Ghana, which has a more advanced tax administration system than Nigeria, cannot collect taxes from its own state institutions, Nigeria’s challenges are even more daunting.
This echoes the 2012 pension fraud scandal in Nigeria, when billions of naira in pension contributions were siphoned from government agencies. The mechanism was different then, but the result was the same: state institutions failed to remit funds intended for public welfare.
The winners: none. The losers: Ghanaian taxpayers, who must make up the shortfall, and Ghana’s fiscal position, which is weakened by the unpaid taxes.
Bottom Line: Ghana’s state-owned enterprises owe GH¢3 billion in unpaid taxes. The government that collects taxes from citizens cannot collect from its own agencies. That is not a revenue problem. That is a governance problem.