- Ghana Must Protect PIAC Independence and Save More Oil Wealth for Future Generations — Adongo
Hon. Isaac Adongo, Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee and Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, has called for a legally guaranteed funding mechanism for the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, warning that Ghana could weaken one of its most important petroleum oversight institutions if its financing remains dependent on government discretion.
Speaking at the launch of PIAC’s 15th anniversary celebration in Accra, Mr Adongo said the committee’s record over the past decade and a half had demonstrated the importance of preserving its institutional independence as Ghana enters a more difficult phase of petroleum revenue management.
The anniversary is being marked under the theme, “PIAC@15: Advancing Resource Governance through Transparency and Accountability for Sustainable Development,” reflecting both the committee’s evolution and the continuing challenge of converting finite petroleum wealth into lasting economic and social value.
“It is a great pleasure to thank you on behalf of the Finance Committee of Parliament in celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, PIAC,” Mr Adongo said. “Over the past 15 years, PIAC has played a vital role in promoting transparency, accountability, and responsible management of Ghana’s resources.”
He described PIAC as an institution that has increasingly performed functions resembling those of an independent policy think tank, combining scrutiny of petroleum revenue expenditure with public education and analysis of how oil resources are managed.
“We are very privileged to have the people who saw the need to set up PIAC, because PIAC at the moment appears to be the only civil, political, and public sector institution that looks like a think tank,” he said.
According to Mr Adongo, PIAC’s interventions have repeatedly helped Parliament and the wider public identify weaknesses in petroleum revenue management and demand better accountability from institutions benefiting from oil-funded allocations.
“We acknowledge the fact that but for your work, a lot of things would have gone wrong over the years,” he said. “I do recall the numerous times you have had to stand your grounds when you have felt that some monies have not been properly accounted for by government.”
The more immediate institutional risk, however, concerns how PIAC itself is financed.
Mr Adongo said reforms affecting the Annual Budget Funding Amount have created uncertainty around the mechanism historically used to support PIAC’s operations. While the restructuring of petroleum allocations towards larger and more identifiable infrastructure projects could improve the visibility of oil-funded investment, it has also reopened the question of how the watchdog established to monitor those revenues should be funded.
“Unfortunately, those reforms that addressed the problem also put you on the path out of your way,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we paid a percentage of funding to keep you running from the ABFA. So the ABFA left with your funding,” Mr Adongo added. “But all is not lost yet. It means that we need to go back and have a better conversation as to how to finance such a valuable institution.”
The concern goes to the heart of institutional independence. An accountability body whose resources depend heavily on annual executive discretion could become vulnerable precisely when its scrutiny is most uncomfortable to government.
Mr Adongo therefore argued that PIAC’s funding should be anchored clearly in law rather than left to the goodwill of individual Finance Ministers.
“The challenge we have had is that today, we are lucky to have a Finance Minister who has worked with PIAC for so many years and is very sympathetic to your cause and has made sure that you are provided for. But it must be a legislative anchor,” he said.
“There must be a clear definition of what the law says should be provided to run your business.”
That distinction is significant. Operational independence does not depend only on the legal freedom to investigate and report; it also depends on whether an institution has predictable resources to recruit staff, undertake inspections, publish reports and engage citizens without fearing that its budget could be constrained.
“Now is the time to ride on the goodwill and make sure that we are clear where PIAC will be funded from,” Mr Adongo said.
Beyond PIAC’s own finances, the Finance Committee Chairman used the anniversary to reopen a wider debate over whether Ghana is saving enough of its petroleum wealth for future generations.
Drawing a comparison with Norway, he argued that Ghana’s petroleum revenue framework remains heavily tilted towards present consumption rather than long-term financial asset accumulation.
“But Norway put a lot of their money into sovereign wealth funds. We have put a lot of our money into consumption,” he said.
The comparison raises a deeper resource-governance question. Transparency can reveal where petroleum money is spent, but sustainable resource management ultimately requires deciding how much of a finite windfall should finance current expenditure and how much should be preserved or invested for citizens who will live after oil production declines.
Mr Adongo said Ghana’s Heritage Fund remains critical to that intergenerational objective, while expressing concern about the pressure repeatedly placed on the country’s petroleum savings mechanisms.
“The stabilization fund has had to suffer a lot of cut and toss. So really it doesn’t contribute much to building the wealth fund that you spoke about,” he said.
“It didn’t happen by fluke. It took conscious planning and conscious decision to sacrifice for the future. Unfortunately, we are sacrificing for the present.”
His argument effectively reframes petroleum savings as a political economy problem. Governments face strong incentives to spend resource revenues on immediately visible infrastructure and social programmes, while the benefits of saving for future generations may not materialise within the tenure of current political leaders.
That creates a structural bias towards present expenditure. Mr Adongo suggested Ghana may eventually require a more ambitious savings arrangement in which government contributes additional resources when petroleum receipts cross defined thresholds.
“It may require that if a certain amount of money is generated from oil, the government should provide a counter to increase the amount of money that is invested for the future,” he said.
Such a mechanism would represent a significant shift from viewing petroleum savings simply as a percentage of resource receipts towards treating intergenerational wealth accumulation as a wider fiscal obligation.
Mr Adongo also cautioned against reforms that could weaken or eliminate the Heritage Fund altogether.
“Let’s pray that that review doesn’t stop the Heritage Fund altogether,” he said.
“Because if we leave us as politicians, we would like to take the money, spend it now, make a good name, and leave an empty bucket for you.”
The warning captures one of the central tensions in natural-resource governance. Ghana faces substantial infrastructure, employment and social-development needs today, but petroleum is a depleting asset and current spending effectively transfers part of that resource wealth from future citizens to the present generation.
For PIAC, its 15th anniversary therefore arrives at a moment when its role may become more consequential rather than less.
As petroleum fields mature and fiscal pressures persist, scrutiny over how remaining revenues are allocated, how much is saved and whether oil-funded projects deliver value for money is likely to intensify.
“So ladies and gentlemen, today I want to congratulate you for having done a great job over the years and for having held government to account for every penny that has been given them from the oil resources,” Mr Adongo said.
The next phase of Ghana’s petroleum governance will consequently involve two intertwined questions: whether PIAC itself can be given the financial independence required to continue effective scrutiny, and whether the country can resist the temptation to consume too much of its remaining petroleum wealth in the present.
Fifteen years after PIAC began its oversight mandate, the challenge is no longer simply proving that Ghana needs petroleum accountability. It is ensuring that the institution providing that accountability is protected by law, while the resource wealth it monitors is managed with enough discipline to leave something meaningful for generations that will never experience Ghana’s oil boom firsthand.
