Former Ghanaian minister proposes punishing officials for permits to build in protected areas
Former Ghanaian Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has proposed introducing personal criminal liability for officials who approve development projects in protected wetlands, watercourses, drainage buffer zones and forest reserves. He made the proposal in Winneba, Ghana, MyJoyOnline reports.
Personal liability
Frimpong-Boateng said that Ghana's current system shields individual officials from liability because illegal or harmful permits are treated as institutional decisions. In his view, an official who signed a permit to build on officially designated wetlands, a watercourse, a drainage buffer zone or a forest reserve should be held personally, rather than institutionally, accountable.
He also proposed that liability for such decisions should remain after an official leaves office, similarly to liability for fraud. According to the former minister, personal liability could deter officials from approving projects that pose a threat to people's lives and the country's environmental security.
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Flooding in Greater Accra
Speaking on September 2, 2026, at the fourth annual colloquium of the Department of Political Science Education at the University of Education, Winneba, Frimpong-Boateng linked weak accountability in land-use planning to the destruction of wetlands, the blockage of natural waterways and recurring floods, particularly in Greater Accra.
According to him, all nine catchment basins in the region have been narrowed, encroached upon or allocated for development. Parts of the Korle Lagoon and the Densu Delta, he claims, have also been occupied by various projects. As an example of the consequences of failures in planning and permit issuance, he cited the flood and fire in Accra on June 3, 2015, which killed more than 150 people.
The former minister also called for forest reserves and water bodies to be completely excluded from the mineral extraction licensing system, leaving no possibility for ministerial exceptions.
