OSP and CAGD unearth GH¢2.8m payroll fraud

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Controller & Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) discovered GH¢2,854,144.80 in unearned monthly salaries during the Government Payroll Administration audit.

Those unearned salaries were attributed to individuals who were deceased, retired, no longer in employment, listed as missing, or whose whereabouts were unknown, often referred to as “Ghost Names.”

A joint statement issued in Accra by the OSP and CAGD said the country saved GH¢34,249,737.60 for the 2024 fiscal year by suspending payments and removing those categories of persons from the Government Payroll.

In addition, further savings are anticipated in subsequent years, along with potential upward compensation adjustments, because of the OSP’s joint inquiry into those unearned salaries.

The investigation covered employees on the Government payroll in the Northern Region only.

The statement said the OSP and CAGD discovered that an alarming number of illegal and inactive validators worked on the payroll system in the Northern Region.

“In one instance, it was discovered that a primary school in the Kumbungu District of Ghana Education Service did not exist at all.

“Yet, this non-existent contrived entity was represented as staffed and the purported staff were being validated monthly and being paid salaries,” it said.

The statement said the OSP and CAGD were conducting an enhanced investigation into educational institutions under the Ghana Education Service in the Northern Region and the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

The goal is to prosecute those who were promoted to non-existent schools, as well as validate deceased, untraceable, and retired individuals and those who had vacated their posts.

It said subsequent phases of the investigation would include the remaining 15 regions.

Source: GNA

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