Gov’t begins payroll audit to eliminate ghost names
The Auditor-General (A-G), Daniel Domelevo, has revealed plans by government to embark on a nationwide exercise to clear ghost names from the country’s payroll.
Workers in the public sector therefore risk being deleted from the government payroll if they fail to provide evidence of their employment for validation by the Auditor-General.
This move forms part of government’s plans to curb excessive expenditure on salaries to prevent draining the national purse.
The nationwide exercise is a joint collaboration between the Auditor-General and the Office of the Special Prosecutor and scheduled to begin from the Central region on Tuesday, 17 July 2018.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, 11 July 2018, Mr Domelevo said: “once you are the head of a management unit [in] a government entity…you have a duty to ensure that it is only people who are working for you who are on your payroll”.
He observed that the regulation stipulates that: “immediately one of your employees leave [your establishment] you are supposed to first notify the Accountant General’s Department, notify the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) section of the ministry where the person is working for them to stop the salary. But you know, that information may not reach early enough so the regulation goes ahead to even say write to the bankers of that employee to stop the salary so that anytime the salary comes, it is paid into the salary suspense account and it comes back to the central government [but] people do not do this”.
He further warned financial institutions that they will not be spared if they are found culpable to have violated any rules regarding suspension of salary payment to individuals who are not under employment by government entities.
“If the salary is paid into the suspense account and the bank fails to transfer the money into the consolidated fund account we will surcharge the bank as well. We are not going to leave them out of this because some of them also think that consolidated fund is part of their working capital, we are not going to allow that,” he cautioned.
Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu, on his part, assured that public servants who engage in payroll fraud will be sanctioned.
“During the payroll audit, when he (Auditor-General) finds any suspicions of commission of crime he will signal us so that we will move in immediately and begin an investigation. So by the time the exercise is finished if there are people who have committed any corruption or corruption-related offenses, we will deal with them together with their self-seeking collaborators,” he stated.
Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com
