The Minority Caucus of the New Patriotic Party in Parliament has pushed back against aspects of the Auditor-General’s Special Audit Report on the One District One Factory (1D1F) initiative, describing some of its conclusions as inaccurate and not supported by law.
A press statement signed by Michael Okyere Baafi, Member of Parliament for New Juaben South and Ranking Member on Parliament’s Trade, Industry and Tourism Committee, said while it respects the constitutional mandate of the Auditor-General under Article 187, it strongly disagrees with what it calls “materially inaccurate and legally unsupported characterizations” in the report.
The 1D1F programme, introduced in 2017 under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was designed to drive industrialisation by supporting private sector-led manufacturing across districts.
According to the Minority, the initiative was structured as a government-facilitated programme, not one where the state directly builds or runs factories. Instead, it relied on policy support, regulatory facilitation, and financial mechanisms to attract private investment.
The statement explains that beneficiary companies fell into two categories: new (greenfield) projects and expansions of existing (brownfield) businesses, selected through a rigorous process involving the Ministry of Trade and Industry and participating financial institutions.
Addressing concerns raised in the audit, the Caucus clarified that some expected loan disbursements did not materialise because advance subsidy funds were not fully released. As a result, certain banks did not extend credit facilities to beneficiary companies.
“When subsequently queried by the Auditor-General’s office, these banks rightly confirmed to auditors that the affected 1D1F companies did not owe them, because no loans had been advanced to those companies,” the statement noted.
It further argued that this situation does not amount to any wrongdoing, stressing that:
“The absence of a loan liability reflects the non-disbursement of the advance, not financial impropriety.”
The Minority also rejected the report’s description of some transactions as fictitious, insisting that all payments followed due process.
“A transaction that has passed through all established public financial management controls cannot, in law, be labelled fictitious absent evidence of fabrication, evidence which is conspicuously absent from the Report,” the statement said.
The Caucus is therefore calling for specific actions, including a retraction of the claims.
“Direct the Ministry of Finance to formally retract the characterization of the 1D1F fund-flow mechanism as ‘fictitious’ and as a ‘deliberate attempt to divert funds,’ as these are legally unsupported and factually inaccurate.”
It also urged Parliament to task the Public Accounts Committee with conducting a fair and thorough review of the audit before any conclusions of wrongdoing are drawn.
In addition, the Minority wants future special audits to involve prior engagement with implementing agencies to allow for clarification of facts before reports are finalised.
While reiterating its support for transparency, the Caucus cautioned against what it sees as the politicisation of accountability processes.
“Accountability must be grounded in law, fact, and fairness. It must not be deployed as a political instrument to stigmatize a programme that was lawfully implemented, parliamentarily approved, and of immense developmental benefit to the Ghanaian people.”
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Read the full statement below:
