Scandal Hits GH¢350M Flood Cash!

The Minority has accused Dr. Dominic Ayine, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice of steering Ghana towards “constitutional dictatorship” by disobeying court orders, keeping critical information away from Parliament and leaving 90,000 flood victims without a pesewa of the GH¢350 million meant for their relief.

Addressing journalists in Parliament House on Wednesday, Deputy Minority Leader, Patricia Appiagyei presented what she described as damning evidence: a letter dated July 1, 2026, which she was from the Attorney-General to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, in which Dr Ayine openly acknowledges that the Contingency Fund is “the subject of garnishee proceedings” yet directs the Central Bank to release the funds “notwithstanding those proceedings.”

“Pause on that sentence, ladies and gentlemen,” Madam Appiagyei declared in shock while waving the document before journalists: “The Attorney-General of the Republic confirms, in writing, that a constitutional fund of this country is under garnishee proceedings before a court of this land. Until this moment, neither the government nor the Attorney-General had breathed a word of this to Parliament or to the people of Ghana.”

According to Madam Appiagyei, the Attorney-General’s directive constitutes a flagrant violation of the rule of law enshrined in Articles 1(2) and 125 of the 1992 Constitution. She argues that court processes cannot be overridden by the “considered opinion” of any Minister, no matter the urgency of the emergency.

“In the Republic of Ghana, court processes are not overridden by the considered opinion of any Minister,” Madam Appiagyei stated. “They are varied, discharged, or set aside by the courts that issued them, and by no one else.”

The Deputy Minority Leader pointed out that any competent Attorney-General could have secured the lawful release of emergency funds within twenty-four hours by moving the court and disclosing the urgency. “The emergency demanded speed before a judge, not a coup against the court’s process,” she stated.

The controversy deepened when Madam Appiagyei revealed that although Parliament’s Finance Committee approved the withdrawal specifically from the Contingency Fund on June 29, 2026, the money may have been released from an entirely different public account without parliamentary approval.

“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. In other words, when the approved source became unavailable, an alternative source appears to have been used. If that is what occurred, then Parliament was never asked to approve that alternative source, and the constitutional requirements governing withdrawals from public funds were bypassed”, Madam Appiagyei argued.

A Catalogue of Failures

The Deputy Minority Leader identified a catalogue of governance failures, including the Attorney-General’s alleged neglect in allowing a constitutional fund to become entangled in litigation, his failure to disclose the attachment to Parliament, and his subsequent unlawful directive to the Central Bank.

Madam Appiagyei noted: “An Attorney-General who presides over the attachment of a constitutional fund has failed in diligence. An Attorney-General who conceals that attachment from Parliament has failed in candour. An Attorney-General who directs the Central Bank to proceed ‘notwithstanding those proceedings’ on the strength of his own opinion has failed in fidelity to the very Constitution he swore to uphold — and has exposed himself to proceedings for contempt of court. And an Attorney-General whose directive is so plainly unlawful that the Central Bank of the Republic refuses to carry it out has been repudiated not by his political opponents, but by the institutions of his own government.”

Demands and Threats

The Minority issued four key demands: that the Attorney-General and Minister for Finance appear before Parliament with all records concerning the garnishee order and the withdrawal; that the Governor of the Bank of Ghana publicly state whether the Bank declined to comply with the Attorney-General’s directive and from which account the money was released; that the Auditor-General conduct a special audit of the flood response disbursement; and that the Attorney-General resign forthwith.

“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,” Madam Appiagyei declared.

The Minority served notice that should candid answers not be forthcoming, they would pursue “every parliamentary and legal avenue available to us, including a motion for a full-scale parliamentary inquiry and recourse to the Supreme Court for the enforcement of the Constitution under Articles 2 and 130.”

The Flood Victims

While demanding accountability, the Minority Leader stressed that the Caucus stands “fully and without reservation” with the victims of the devastating floods that claimed 34 lives and displaced approximately 90,000 people across the country as of July 3, 2026.

“Not one pesewa of relief should be delayed, and we shall support every lawful measure to get help to those who need it,” Madam Appiagyei affirmed. “Our issue is with a government that conceals court processes from Parliament, directs its central bank into illegality, moves the people’s money through unapproved channels, and then tells the nation a story its own records contradict.”

The Deputy Minority Leader warned that “the greatest danger to a constitutional democracy is when those entrusted to uphold the law decide that the law no longer applies to them.”

“The Attorney-General presumed to overrule a court by letter,” she said. “The Executive presumed to substitute Parliament’s approval with its own convenience. The Ministry of Finance presumed that an official statement could replace the truth. That is not the conduct of a government committed to the rule of law. It is the conduct of a government that has begun to confuse power with permission.”

At press time, the Attorney-General’s office had not responded to the allegations, and the Ministry of Finance had not issued an official statement clarifying the source of the GH¢350 million.