Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has pushed back against suggestions that the Mahama administration was not spending enough, telling Parliament that the government's approach to public funds was defined by discipline rather than the size of its expenditure.

Presenting the 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Thursday, July 23, 2026, Dr Ato Forson said the government was not seeking supplementary funds and that total appropriations for the year would remain unchanged. 

Instead, he stated, existing funds were being realigned to cover key commitments including public sector wages, debt service, infrastructure and social welfare programmes while maintaining fiscal discipline.

He said sustainable recovery depended on the government spending strictly within its means, adding: "Mr Speaker, the true measure of a Finance Minister is not how much he spends, but how faithfully he protects the resources entrusted to him."

Dr Ato Forson spoke about the state of the economy, saying President John Dramani Mahama inherited one in a severe distress but has made significant progress stabilising it over the past 18 months. 

He argued that the 2022 economic crisis under former President Nana Akufo-Addo was the result of poor policy decisions rather than an unavoidable event.

"President Mahama inherited an economy on its knees," he said, emphasising that "the economic crisis of 2022 was not merely an accident. It was the consequence of a series of wrong policy choices—choices about reckless spending, excessive and binge borrowing, lack of accountability, and a failure to level with the people of Ghana about the true state of the Ghanaian economy”.