The Auditor General, Mr. Daniel Yao Domelevo, has appealed to heads of government institutions to help clean up 'Ghost' names in payrolls and save the nation some money.
He said there was the need to protect the public purse by stopping the leakages because a chunk of the national revenue was spent in paying salaries, leaving very little for investment.
According to him, 45 percent of the country’s revenue is spent on paying just about 600,000 workers on the government’s payroll and described the situation as worrying.
Speaking at the launch of the National Payroll Verification Audit in Kumasi, Mr. Domelevo entreated heads of district assemblies and other government institutions in the region to ensure that all their staff got verified, adding that they also had to ensure that they were the right personnel working with them.
He said although a similar exercise had been done in the past, there was the need for the service to conduct another one after which a certification of disallowance to discontinue payment to all the ‘ghosts’ found would be conducted.
According to him, every year, the government deleted ‘ghost’ names from the payroll yet they kept recurring.
He said with the certificate of disallowance, “only a High Court can reinstate such person onto the payroll again,†and expressed the hope that this time, once a name has been expunged from the payroll, it would be difficult for such names to get into the system again.
He said any institution found to have ‘ghosts’ on their staff payroll would have 30 days within which to respond to the management letter before action is taken.
He said the exercise would be conducted concurrently in all the districts within the region and each person would be required to bring along either an appointment letter or the last promotional letter, two national identification cards, and two passport pictures.
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The Deputy Controller and Accountant General, Mr. Kwasi Kwanang Bosompim, said the validation exercise was being organized under the auspices of the World Bank and the Auditor General to clean the payroll system.
He said it was incumbent on all workers on the government’s payroll to ensure that they were validated in order to keep receiving their salaries.
According to him, anyone who failed to take part in the exercise would have their names deleted from the payroll as they would be considered as ‘ghosts’.
He added that the exercise was important as it would help the government to have credible data of all government workers.
The exercise, which started on Tuesday, November 13, will run until November 23, 2018.
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