Researched by Gifty Danso
One budget estimate that attracted a lot of attention after the presentation of the 2025 budget was an allocation of GH¢2.7 billion as compensation to staff of the Office of Government Machinery (OGM).
Opposition Members of Parliament criticized the expenditure line while the New Patriotic Party spokesperson, Richard Ahiagbah, in a social media post noted that the amount was way above the amount allocated in the 2024 budget and that it was more than all five government job interventions captured in the 2025 budget.
A viral flyer shared by Ghana Today on X also compared the allocations in the 2024 and 2025 budgets for staff compensation at the Office of Government Machinery..
The quote card shared on March 15, 2025, indicated that the 2024 budget had allocated GH¢326.9 million for staff compensation at the Office of the President, while the 2025 budget allocated GH¢2.711 billion.
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A copy of the Ghana Today flyer
In this report, we analyze explanations the government gave for the huge OGM allocation and how the figure was subsequently downsized after realignment of allocations in the 2025 Appropriations Bill.
GhanaFact relied on budgetary estimates for the Office of Government Machinery as captured in 2024 and 2025 budget appropriation documents.
What is OGM?
The Office of Government Machinery (OGM) is defined traditionally as an entity that exists to “provide accountable, transparent, managerial, technical and administrative services to the Presidency and other stakeholders for the attainment of the government’s development agenda of improving the quality of life of Ghanaians.”
The 2024 Budget allocated GH¢326,907,847 to compensate OGM employees. This allocation covered staff of agencies such as the National Identification Authority, the Scholarship Secretariat, the Zongo Development Fund, and others (see page 191 of the 2024 budget statement).
In the 2025 budget, however, the government had initially allocated GH¢2,711,100,839 (find here, and here) for the compensation of employees under the OGM.
Fig 1 – Source: Ministry of Finance
Government explains the amount after public critique
The Minister of State in charge of Government Communication, Felix Kwakye Ofosu explained in a video on March 13, 2025, that the GH¢2,711,100,839 captured under compensation of employees also included compensation for staff under collapsed ministries – i.e. the defunct Ministries of Information and National Security.
“Because President Mahama reduced the number of Ministries from 30 to 23, some agencies that used to operate under the collapsed ministries have been moved to the Office of the President for budgetary purposes. Because when the budget is being prepared, the staff of those agencies have to be accounted for. That accounting has to go through a mother agency,” he said (between 2:08 – 2:32).
It is noteworthy that in the case of the allocation for the National Security Secretariat and Research Department, their operations were moved to the Ministry of Interior. Subsequently, an amount of GH¢2,348,677,923 was captured as compensation for employees under National Security and Safety Management section of the Ministry’s allocation (see page 153 of the 2025 budget statement).
At present, the Ministry of Finance has updated the figures to the allocations for the compensation of employees under the Office of Government Machinery. The current budget as uploaded on the Finance Ministry’s website captures allocation to compensate staff under the Office of Government Machinery as GH¢362,422,916 (see page 149 of the 2025 budget statement).
This amount is also captured in the 2025 Appropriation document. When the new OGM allocation is added to the over 2.3 billion cedis for National Security, the original figure of 2.7 billion cedis is arrived at.
Fig 2 – Source: Ministry of Finance
Therefore, in terms of the compensation of employees component in OGM allocation, the 2025 figure is 35,515,069 higher than the 2024 figure.
Alfred Appiah, a data scientist reacted to the realigned OGM staff compensation allocation in an X post that read: “It appears that, following discussions after the budget presentation, the government has moved National Security’s budget under the Ministry of the Interior. It was previously under the Office of Government Machinery (OGM), which had led to significant misrepresentation. This also aligns with the President’s designation of the Minister for the Interior to oversee National Security.
“The budget cuts under OGM are now clearer. The 2025 OGM budget, including IGF, is GH¢950 million lower than in 2024. Compensation remains broadly at 2024 levels, factoring in the 10% public sector pay increase,” he added.
