This paper offers a political-economy analysis of the expenditure side of Ghana's budgetary system. It starts by setting out evidence on the workings of the present system and then asks why the revealed large failings are tolerated. It offers a political answer to that question and then sets the situation in the wider context of the condition of the public service and the reasons for its continuing parlous state. It concludes by speculating on what might be the drivers of budgetary change in Ghana.