Summary

SAI Ghana conducted a performance audit of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty* (LEAP) national program. The audit coverage period was from 2017 to 2022. To ensure the sustainability of LEAP, it is designed to be reassessed every four years to justify if a beneficiary should still be on the program. Despite identifying positive impacts of LEAP, auditors noted that 14 years after its existence, beneficiaries had not been reassessed. The Ministry did not keep appropriate records on funds expended, resulting in excess spending of over 15 million Ghanaian cedis (about 1.5 million US dollars). SAI Ghana made a number of recommendations in terms of improving the accounting and monitoring systems, regularly updating the register before payments, quarterly reporting by accountants, and compliance with the LEAP Fund utilization guidelines. _________________________________ * LEAP Programme is a social protection initiative introduced by the Government of Ghana in 2008 and implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (the Ministry) through the provision of cash grants and access to the National Health Insurance Scheme to extremely poor and vulnerable households to alleviate economic and social distress. As at the end of 2020, a total of 335 015 households in 259 of the country’s 261 districts were enrolled in the LEAP Programme register.