The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Works and Housing Committee, Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, has questioned the Finance Minister’s explanation that a court order freezing Ghana’s constitutional contingency fund hindered the government’s response to recent flooding in Accra, describing the claim as both surprising and inconsistent with earlier assurances given to Parliament. According to the former Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, the explanation raises concerns about coordination within government, particularly at Cabinet level, where major emergency interventions are discussed and approved. His comments follow the presentation of the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review by the Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, who disclosed that government’s efforts to access the constitutional contingency fund for flood relief and mitigation were frustrated because the fund had been garnisheed under a court order.
READ ALSO: The only emergency fund we have is blocked – Ato Forson concerned over garnisheed state account The Finance Minister described the contingency fund as Ghana’s only constitutionally established emergency fund and warned that its unavailability posed significant challenges to government’s ability to respond promptly to disasters. Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse on Friday, Mr Mensah Korsah questioned how Cabinet could have approved emergency flood response measures without being aware that the contingency fund was inaccessible. I mean, the aftermath of the rains and the subsequent overwhelming flooding that we saw, every step that the government took, we in Parliament were made to believe, was as a result of a government emergency response born out of Cabinet deliberations,” he said.
He argued that if Cabinet had indeed authorised the interventions, it was difficult to understand how ministers, particularly the Attorney-General as government’s chief legal adviser, were unaware of the legal restrictions on the fund. “If the Cabinet of Ghana could convene and brainstorm on measures to mitigate subsequent floods and decided to assess money from the contingency fund and it never occurred to Cabinet, of which the chief legal advisor to the President, Attorney-General, is a member, and they did not know that the contingency fund had a garnishee order, then it’s quite strange.
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