Heads of institutions will refund GH¢564.2 million salaries of 'ghost' workers - A-G's Department
- The Auditor-General’s Department has revealed that it will surcharge officials whose weak supervision caused the country to lose GH¢564.2 million
- These unaccounted for employees at the MDAs accounted for GH¢467.6 million of the total unearned salaries
- Although the Auditor-General had decided not to act now because of the COVID-19, he urged the CAGD to take immediate steps to clean the payroll
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The Auditor-General’s Department has revealed that it will surcharge officials whose weak supervision over the public payroll caused the country to lose GH¢564.2 million.
According to the A-G's Department, the country lost that huge amount of money through unearned salaries by employees of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
That action has become necessary following the discovery in a nationwide payroll and personnel verification audit conducted by the department that 7,823 ‘ghost’ employees existed in 21 MDAs.
These unaccounted for employees at the MDAs accounted for GH¢467.6 million of the total unearned salaries.
Source: UGC
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The report also indicated that some 6,307 employees who were declared by their respective institutions as “discontinued” were not terminated promptly by the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) on the payroll.
This action according to the A-G's report, resulted in the payment of unearned salaries of GH¢87.6 million as of June 2018.
Although the Auditor-General had decided not to act now because of the COVID-19, he urged the CAGD to take immediate steps to clean the payroll.
“We recommend that the CAGD should ensure the termination of the unaccounted for employees on the payroll. The heads of MDAs should also ensure the full recovery of the unearned salaries from the affected persons,” he stressed.
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In a related development, the Auditor-General’s Department has plans of recovering all unearned salaries received by some public sector employees.
According to a report filed by Citinewsroom, as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic is contained in the country, the AG's department would go hunting for ghosts on government payroll.
This was captured in the Auditor-General’s report on the nationwide payroll and personnel verification audit as of June 2018 that was been presented to Parliament in accordance with Sections 13(e) and 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584).
READ ALSO: Ghost names: A-G's department to ‘chase’ 12,563 non-existent employees
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Source: YEN.com.gh
