Abena Osei-Asare Raises GH¢4.55bn Question Over GoldBod’s 2025 Accounts
Public Accounts Committee Chair questions why government funds described as revolving trade capital and unutilised subvention were recognised as grant revenue in GoldBod’s reported surplus.
ACCRA, Ghana
1h ago·3 min read
Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Hon. Mrs. Abena Osei-Asare, has raised questions over the accounting treatment of GH¢4.5477 billion in government funding contained in the Ghana Gold Board’s 2025 financial statements.
Osei-Asare, a banker and chartered accountant, says GoldBod’s annual report appears to give different descriptions to the GH¢4.5477 billion and has called on the institution’s directors to publicly explain how the money was accounted for.
In a post examining GoldBod’s 2025 accounts, the Atiwa East Member of Parliament said the institution describes the government funding in its Business Review as “revolving trade capital” intended to support gold purchasing, trading and export operations.
She, however, noted that the same GH¢4.5477 billion was recognised in the financial statements as grant revenue and consequently formed part of GoldBod’s reported surplus.
According to Osei-Asare, another section of the report describes the money as “unutilised government subvention”, while the financial statements indicate that the entire amount remained at the Bank of Ghana at the end of the year.
The different descriptions, she argues, raise a fundamental question about how the funds were treated in GoldBod’s accounts.
“How did GH¢4.5477 billion provided as revolving trade capital, and still unutilised at year-end, come to be recognised as revenue contributing to a reported surplus of about GH¢5.44 billion?” she asked.
Osei-Asare points to IPSAS requirements
The former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance said the issue should be examined against the accounting standards governing public-sector financial reporting.
She cited International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) 1, which deals with the presentation of financial statements, and IPSAS 23, which covers revenue from non-exchange transactions, including transfers.
According to her, the accounting treatment of government transfers depends on their nature and whether they constitute unconditional revenue, are subject to conditions, or are in substance capital contributions.
Osei-Asare also cited provisions of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), particularly Sections 79, 82 and 93, arguing that public financial statements must be properly prepared and consistently classified to provide a true and fair representation of an entity’s financial position and performance.
She stressed that her questions do not necessarily suggest GoldBod failed to generate income from its operations.
“GoldBod may well have generated income from its operations,” she wrote. “That still leaves unanswered the treatment of GH¢4.5477 billion of Government money described by GoldBod itself as both revolving trade capital and unutilised subvention.”
Other figures also questioned
Beyond the GH¢4.5477 billion, Osei-Asare said she had identified what she described as inconsistencies between figures appearing in different sections of GoldBod’s annual report.
According to her, different parts of the report provide varying figures for expenditure, surplus, total assets, net assets and GoldBod’s share of profit in GoldBod Jewellery Limited.
She argued that such differences require reconciliation, particularly in an audited annual report dealing with billions of cedis in public resources.
“A signed and audited annual report dealing with billions of cedis of public resources should not leave readers choosing between different figures for the same line item,” she said.
Osei-Asare has consequently called on GoldBod’s directors to explain the accounting basis used to recognise the GH¢4.5477 billion and reconcile the figures she says differ across sections of the annual report.
Calls for Auditor-General’s Management Letter
The Public Accounts Committee Chair also called on the Auditor-General to make available the Management Letter arising from the audit of GoldBod’s accounts.
She said its publication would help establish whether auditors identified the issues she has raised and what explanations GoldBod's management provided during the audit process.
“If there is a proper accounting basis for this treatment, it should be stated plainly,” Osei-Asare said.
“Public money of this magnitude should not be described as revolving capital in one part of the accounts, unutilised in another, and revenue in another without a clear reconciliation.”
Osei-Asare has represented the Atiwa East Constituency in the Eastern Region in Parliament since January 2013 and currently chairs Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.
Her intervention adds another layer to the growing public scrutiny surrounding GoldBod’s financial performance and the accounting of government resources used to support Ghana’s gold purchasing and trading programme.