The Auditor-General, Mr. Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, has released the 2024 audited financial statements of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) in accordance with its statutory mandate and in line with the principles of transparency, accountability, and good governance.
MIIF is on record as having requested that the 2024 financial report be re-audited by the Auditor-General over what MIIF claimed were misstatements in the audited report. However, the Auditor-General has insisted that there were no misstatements in the 2020 financial report and that there are no justifiable reasons to re-audit the report.
The MIIF 2024 audited financial statement was released by the Auditor-General on 11 February 2024 in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request submitted to the Audit Service by a former member of the MIIF board and counsel to former president Akufo-Addo, Kow Essuman.
Following a decision by the RTI Commission to grant the Management of MIIF a 90-Day window within which to provide a copy of the 2024 Audited financial report to Mr. Essuman after he filed an RTI request with MIIF, the learned lawyer wrote to the Auditor-General to confirm if the RTI Commission did any due diligence after it received a letter from the CEO of MIIF, based on which the Commission decided to grant the 90-Day moratorium to MIIF.
*Request*
Among other demands, Mr. Essuman requested that the Auditor-General provide him with a copy of the audited financial statements for 2024 of MIIF, since the Audit Service has clearly stated that it does not intend to re-audit its already audited work.
REQUEST: “Are the 2024 audited financial statements of MIIF presently under review by the Audit Service or any other auditor? If so, please indicate the basis for the review, the stage of the review process, and the anticipated outcome and timeline.”
A-G RESPONSE: “The 2024 audited financial statements (signed off by the Service) of MIIF are presently NOT under any form of review.”
REQUEST: “What, if any, would be the legal and practical effect of a further review or the already signed and submitted 2024 audited financial statements, particularly in relation to their accuracy and prior submission to the Board of MIIF and the Ministry of Finance?”
A-G RESPONSE: “The Service has no reason to review the already signed and submitted 2024 audited financial statements.”
REQUEST: “Kindly provide copies of any engagement letters, correspondence, or formal communications exchanged between the Audit Service and MIIF concerning the 2024 audited financial statements following their sign-off in June 2025.”
A-G RESPONSE: “Engagement letters are sent to audit clients prior to the beginning of an audit engagement. There are therefore NO engagement letters issued after an audit assignment has been signed off.”
REQUEST: “Please provide a copy of the fully signed 2024 audited financial statements of MIIF, as executed by the Auditor-General, the Chief Executive Officer, and the Board Chairperson.”
A-G RESPONSE: “A copy of the signed 2024 audited financial statements of MIIF is attached accordingly.”
In a related development, Kow Abaka Essuman Esq. has pointed out to the Executive Secretary of the Right to Information (RTI) Commission, Ms. Genevieve Shirley Lartey, Esq., that the Commission has been misled by the management of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF).
90-Day Grant
The RTI Commission, in a letter dated 16 January 2026 and addressed to Mr. Kow Essuman, granted MIIF and its CEO a 90-day window to comply with an RTI request submitted by Mr. Essuman, a former board member of the fund, demanding a copy of MIIF’s 2024 audited financial statements.
“The Commission has received a response from the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) in respect of your application for information. In its submission, MIIF requested a deferral of access to the requested information on the grounds that its Board has identified material misstatements in the 2024 financial statements, which were not detected during the initial audit process.
“MIF further indicated and provided the Commission with evidence that it is presently under formal engagement with the Auditor-General for the purpose of undertaking a further review of both the initially signed and completed 2024 audit report, as well as the identified misstatements arising therefrom,” RTI Commission letter to Mr. Essuman read.
“Considering the foregoing, and pursuant to section 22 of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989), the Commission has granted MIIF a period of ninety (90) days within which to complete the necessary review processes and provide the requested information accordingly,” the RTI Commission letter further read.
Misled
In a letter dated 26 February 2026, Mr. Essuman observed that the RTI Commission was misled by the MIIF CEO regarding an application for review he submitted to the commission on an RTI request he submitted to MIIF, which MIIF management failed to attend to.
The commission, according to Mr. Essuman, went ahead to take a decision on his application for review as a result of the misrepresentation by the MIIF CEO without the commission carrying out any due diligence.
“Even after I brought this to the attention of the Commission, it regrettably declined to reconsider its position and instead proceeded to justly and entrench it. This is particularly concerning in light of the Commission’s statutory mandate to conduct independent inquiries and investigations.
“It is evident from the circumstances and correspondence from the Audit-General, which was procured after the Commission’s letter of 30 January 2026, that no independent verification was undertaken and that the Commission relied solely on representations made by MIIF. This approach is inconsistent with both the letter and spirit of the RTL Act,” Mr. Essuman stated in his letter.
“For instance, your letter indicates that MIIF raised concerns about misstatements in the earlier audit and requested a review and restatement of the 2024 audited financial statements.
“However, had the Commission undertaken even minimal independent verification, such as writing to the Auditor General, it would have discovered that although MIIF had indeed made such a request, the Auditor General refused to review and restate the 2024 audited financial statement,” the letter further read.
2025 Audit
Mr. Essuman, in his letter, also posited that the RTI Commission was misled by the MIIF CEO about which entity would audit MIIF’s 2025 financial statements.
He pointed out that, had the commission done its due diligence, it would have discovered that the Auditor-General had terminated the contract with the external entity to carry out the 2025 audit of MIIF and had since decided that the audit service would carry out the 2025 audit of MIIF.
“Similarly, your letter further states that the Auditor-General commissioned an external auditor to audit MIF’s accounts for the period 1 January to 31 December 2025.
“Respectfully, this information is wholly irrelevant to my application for review, which concerns the 2024 audited financial statements,” Essman’s letter read.
“More importantly, had the Commission engaged the Auditor-General, it would have discovered that the appointment has since been terminated, and the Audit Service itself is conducting the 2025 audit.
“Upon receipt of your letter, I wrote to the Auditor-General to verify the matters. The responses received confirm that the Commission did not independently verify the information presented by MIIF and was, regrettably, misled,” the letter further read.
