The Minority in Parliament is demanding the immediate dismissal of Attorney General and Minister for Justice Dr Dominic Ayine over what it describes as his role in the alleged unlawful disbursement of GH¢350 million to support flood victims.
According to the caucus, the money was approved by Parliament to be withdrawn from the Contingency Fund to support relief and mitigation efforts following recent floods.
However, the Minority says the disbursement may have breached both a court order and Ghana’s public finance laws because the Contingency Fund was under attachment at the time.
The caucus said that if the fund could not legally be accessed because of ongoing garnishee proceedings, then either the Bank of Ghana allowed a withdrawal in defiance of a court order, or the money was taken from another public account without parliamentary approval.
Addressing journalists in Parliament, Deputy Minority Leader Patricia Appiagyei said the circumstances surrounding the release of the money point to possible constitutional and legal violations.
“The unavoidable question, therefore, is how did the money move?” she asked.
“One conclusion is difficult to escape. If the Contingency Fund remained under attachment and could not lawfully be accessed, then the emergency disbursement could only have proceeded through another public account.”
The Minority says the government’s explanation of the disbursement leaves major gaps, especially because the Ministry of Finance announced that the GH¢350 million had been released from the Contingency Fund while the court process over the fund had not yet been resolved.
She said if the approved source of funding had become unavailable because of the attachment, then any alternative arrangement should have been brought back to Parliament for approval.
“In other words, when the approved source became unavailable, an alternative source appears to have been used,” she said.
“If that is what happened, then Parliament was never asked to approve the alternative source and the constitutional requirements governing withdrawals from public funds were bypassed.”
She said the Finance Ministry’s public statement makes the matter even more serious if it later turns out that the money did not come from the Contingency Fund after all.
“Yet the Ministry of Finance official statement announced without qualification that the money had been released from the Contingency Fund. If the funds were in fact drawn from another account, then that statement did not accurately reflect what transpired.”
According to the Minority, that would mean Parliament approved one withdrawal, but another one was carried out instead.
“If the GH¢350 million was drawn from any account other than the Contingency Fund, then the approval Parliament granted was never executed,” Ms Appiagyei said.
“The withdrawal that was executed was never approved.”
She added that such a move would amount to a direct breach of the Constitution and the Public Financial Management Act.
“The Constitution and the Public Financial Management Act, 2016, Act 921, which criminalises unauthorised withdrawals of public funds, have been violated in broad daylight,” she said.
The Minority is also placing direct responsibility on Attorney General Dr Dominic Ayine, arguing that he failed in his constitutional duty to protect the state’s legal position and ensure that the law was followed.
Referring to Article 88 of the Constitution, Ms Appiagyei said the Attorney General is both the government’s principal legal adviser and the official responsible for handling all civil proceedings involving the state.
“Consider third, Article 88,” she said. “The Attorney General is the principal legal advisor to the government and is responsible for the conduct of all civil proceedings against the state. His letter of 1 July 2026 is a written admission of failure on both fronts.”
She said that as the official in charge of civil proceedings against the state, Dr Ayine should have acted when the Contingency Fund became the subject of court action.
“As the officer responsible for civil proceedings against the state, he presided over litigation in which a constitutional fund of the republic was attached, and there’s no indication that the attachment was resisted or that any application was made to discharge it,” she said.
The Deputy Minority Leader said the Attorney General also failed to provide lawful advice at the critical moment.
“As principal legal advisor, when the moment came to counsel lawfully, he failed to do so,” she said.
The Minority says the Attorney General should resign immediately, and if he refuses, President John Dramani Mahama must remove him from office.
“Should he fail to do the honourable thing, we call on the President, who swore an oath to preserve, protect, and defend this Constitution, to relieve him of office without delay,” Ms Appiagyei said.
She said the caucus was formally demanding that “the Attorney General resign or be removed from office”.
Beyond the call for Dr Ayine’s removal, the Minority is also demanding that the Attorney General and the Finance Minister appear before Parliament immediately to account for the transaction and present all relevant records.
“First, the Attorney General and the Minister for Finance [must] appear before Parliament without delay to lay before the House the garnishee order, the full record of the suit that produced the judgment, the letter of 1 July 2026 and every correspondence exchanged among the Attorney General, the Ministry of Finance, the Controller and Accountant-General, and the Bank of Ghana concerning the attachment, the directives, and the withdrawal,” Ms Appiagyei said.
The caucus is also asking the Governor of the Bank of Ghana to publicly clarify whether the central bank refused or complied with the Attorney General’s directive and to disclose the exact account from which the money was released.
“Second, that the Governor of the Bank of Ghana state publicly whether the bank declined to give effect to the Attorney General’s directive, from which account the GH¢350 million was in fact released and on whose instruction,” she said.
The Minority is further demanding a special audit by the Auditor-General into the flood relief disbursement.
“Third, the Auditor-General [should] immediately conduct a special audit of the flood response disbursement from source to destination and report to Parliament,” she said.
The caucus says it will escalate the matter if government officials fail to provide what it describes as full and honest answers.
“The Minority further serves notice. Should candid answers not be forthcoming, we shall pursue every parliamentary and legal avenue available to us,” she said.
