The Auditor General’s Department has indicated that it will begin an exercise to recover monies government has spent on unearned salaries of employees in the public sector.
The Auditor-General, however stated, when Ghana is able to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, it would ensure that unearned salaries received by employees in the public sector are “recovered and paid into the Consolidated Fund”.
In an annual report by the Auditor General’s Department on a nationwide payroll and personnel verification audit to ascertain the true existence of government employees on the payroll, the auditor noted a total of GH¢ 564,234,442.74 was spent on unearned salaries of workers in the public sector.
It said an amount of GH¢467,634,792.00 was spent on salaries relating to un-accounted for employees and GH¢87,560,632.53 on payments to discontinued employees.
“We plan to exercise this mandate and ensure the recovery of GH¢467,634,792 unearned salaries immediately after the spread of the Coronavirus is contained”.
The report, which highlighted a nationwide payroll and personnel verification audit from June 2018 to January 2020, disclosed that some 522,478 supposed active employees received salaries for the period under review but 12,563 employees could not be accounted for.
You can also read: SPECIAL AUDIT REPORT OF THE AUDITOR-GENERAL ON DISALLOWANCE AND SURCHARGE AS AT 30 N0VEMBER 2018
The auditor-General also mentioned that some 6,307 employees declared as “discontinued” through the ESPV system, continued to receive unearned salaries.
“We noted during our validation exercise that 522,478 supposed active employees received salaries for the period under review. To confirm their physical existence, we carried out a nation-wide payroll exercise.”
According to the Auditor General, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, the various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies/ Metropolitans, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs) have not been effective in managing records of personnel on the government payroll, the reason for the infractions.
“Weak coordination between the MMDAs and CAGD in the management of personnel records on the government payroll in our view, largely accounted for the infractions noted during the period of our review.”
The Attorney General suggested that the Chief Directors of the affected MDAs/MMDAs should be extra vigilant in management of their payrolls.
SOURCE: Lydia Sekyi Acquah/ATL FM NEWS
