Numbers have a quiet way of speaking the plain truth, long after political speeches have ended and official cameras are packed away. When the State Interests and Governance Authority published its 2025 State Ownership Report, government communicators rushed to celebrate incremental increases over previous years. But behind the selective reading lies a stark administrative reality that tells a completely different story.
Every single statutory compliance target set by SIGA for the 2025 financial year was missed.
To understand why this matters to the Ghanaian taxpayer, one must look at how statutory oversight is built. SIGA targets are not optional wishes. They represent the minimum baseline required by law to protect public property, enforce financial discipline, and stop state agencies from becoming dark alleys of unvetted spending.
Table 0.1 on page xv of the 2025 report reveals the true picture of compliance across state entities as of June 24, 2026.
SIGA 2025 STATUTORY COMPLIANCE: TARGET VS ACTUAL
Submission Category 2025 Target FY2025 Actual Shortfall / Status
Audited Financial Statements 177 108 Missed by 69 entities
Signed Performance Contracts 148 72 Missed by 76 entities
Quarterly Reports Submitted 148 71 Missed by 77 entities
Holding of AGM / ASM 177 37 Missed by 140 entities
Employment Data Submitted 148 137 Missed by 11 entities
The data shows a widespread gap in basic public administration.
Take the submission of audited financial statements, the very bedrock of corporate accountability. SIGA set a target for 177 state-owned entities and specified bodies to hand in their fully audited accounts. Only 108 entities complied. That left 69 public institutions operating, spending taxpayer money, and managing state assets without verified external audits.
The breakdown in operational oversight gets worse when you examine performance contracts. Out of a targeted 148 entities expected to sign performance contracts to guide their work for the year, only 72 entities actually signed. More than half of the targeted state entities operated throughout 2025 without signed, binding performance targets.
Routine monitoring suffered the exact same fate. SIGA expected 148 entities to submit regular quarterly reports to allow real-time oversight of public funds. Only 71 entities submitted them. 77 state institutions essentially went off the regulatory radar for months at a time.
When it comes to stakeholder accountability through Annual General Meetings or Annual Stakeholder Meetings, the failure rate was breathtaking. Out of a targeted 177 entities, a paltry 37 entities bothered to hold their required meetings. 140 public entities completely ignored this basic legal duty, keeping their shareholders, the taxpayers of Ghana, completely in the dark.
Even on basic human resource data, where 148 entities were expected to submit employment figures, only 137 complied. That was not only a miss against the 2025 target, but an absolute drop below the 142 entities that successfully submitted their employment data in FY2024 under the previous administration.
The contrast in governance philosophy is striking. Under the New Patriotic Party, the establishment of SIGA and the enforcement of the Public Financial Management framework were designed to end the era of laissez-faire management in state entities. The NPP built a system where public managers were expected to account for every cedi through strict timelines, signed performance contracts, and verifiable audits.
What the 2025 SIGA data shows is a worrying relaxation of that regulatory grip. When a government allows more than half of its public entities to skip performance contracts, ignore quarterly reporting, and bypass audited statements, it undermines the very foundation of public sector reform.
Government spin doctors may point to minor variances over previous years to manufacture a story of progress. But in professional public administration, you do not measure success by how far you fell short last year; you measure it by whether you met the legal targets set for the current year.
On that test, the verdict inside SIGA’s own report is clear. The targets were set, the deadlines passed, and the current administration allowed state entities to miss every single one. Ghanaian citizens who pay for these state bodies deserve far better than a report card full of missed targets and unfulfilled legal duties.
