This article examines an aspect of Ghana's political economy in the 1990s, covering its transition to democracy from military dictatorship, and how this change process impacted on its attempt to implement a value added tax (VAT). It assesses the claim that political transition from autocracy to democracy improves policy-making and policy outcomes. Ghana's experience of implementing VAT typifies an inherent problem in African governance, that of lack of adequate capacity for improved policy-making and for the institutionalisation of inclusive politics and public accountability. The VAT case served in the end to impose a previously absent level of public accountability on the Ghanaian government.