The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) have presented findings on the government of Ghana’s payroll administration.
The probe was limited to personnel on government payroll in the Northern Region.
The OSP and CAGD discovered that the payroll system in the Northern Region (which only includes educational institutions under the Ghana Education Service and the Tamale Teaching Hospital) is serviced by an alarming number of unlicensed and inactive validators.
In one case, it was determined that there was no elementary school in the Kumbungu District of the Ghana Education Service.
However, this non-existent generated entity was portrayed as staffed, and the alleged employees were authenticated and paid on a monthly basis.
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An astounding amount of GH¢2,854,144.80 was detected as undeserved monthly compensation for persons who were deceased, retired, no longer in their employment, listed as missing, or whose locations were unknown, generally referred to as “Ghost Names.”
Blocking these payments and removing the related people from the Government Payroll saved the Republic GH¢34,249,737.60 for the 2024 fiscal year.
In addition, further savings are predicted in following years, as well as potential upward compensation adjustments, as a result of the OSP’s joint inquiry into these undeserved earnings.
