11,300 ‘Ghosts’ Under Watch

…1,157 Busted

By Liberty Amewode, News Editor

Salary payments for 1,157 apparent ghost workers have been suspended with effect

from April 2010, while verification work is also on-going on about 11,300

workers classified as Verifiable Potential Ghosts with a view to detect more

ghost workers.

This followed a headcount of the 283,000 staff of the Public Education Sector

conducted in July-August 2009, with data collected from nearly 20,000

educational establishments.

According to the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena

Duffuor, who revealed this in the 2011 budget which he presented to parliament a

fortnight ago, the situation reflected good progress on the headcount, saying

similar audits will be launched for other sectors or ministries to be completed

by the end of 2011.

The minister said the current stand-alone payroll database will be integrated

and upgraded into the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information Systems

(GIFMIS) once its roll-out has been completed.

“Pending this integration, for agencies already on the payroll database, new

recruitment will continue to be verified by the Controller and Accountant

General’s Department on a continuous basis to ensure appropriate budget

authorization”, he added.

Throwing more light on Public Financial Management Reforms, the minister said

the government has begun implementing major reforms in a bid to strengthen the

public financial management system judging from the need for it to ensure value

for money and the efficient delivery of services.

The reforms, said Dr Duffuor, include the transformation of public financial

reporting systems through the implementation of the GIFMIS, the major focus of

which is the upgrading and fresh installation of Oracle Public Sector Financial

e-Business Suite software, adding that the setup and reimplementation is the

over-arching financial accounting, control, audit and reporting of the

Government of Ghana budget appropriation.

He said the GIFMIS was expected to improve the effectiveness of service delivery

and the allocation of resources, using new tools and processes to ensure more

accountable, effective and transparent government.

The minister disclosed that the government has begun the introduction Programme

Based Budgeting (PBB) over the next five years as part of efforts to address

existing weaknesses in the budgeting system.

He observed that the current Activity Based Budgeting was too detailed,

cumbersome and does not lend itself easily to performance management due to over

emphasis on inputs and activities instead of outputs and results.

The specific budget reform, he noted, will therefore help introduce performance

orientation, flexibility and simplicity in the budget system to improve resource

allocation and utilization.

Dr. Duffuor made known of a preparatory work to begin on a new and comprehensive

budget law to effectively regulate the management of the entire public finances,

saying a comprehensive legislative review will be undertaken of all existing

legislations governing public financial management to ensure compliance with the

constitution and effective management of public funds.

He said his ministry has also established a contract database framework which

tracks the engagement in contracts by all ministries, departments and agencies,

the benefit of which is to establish the potential liabilities on government

finances. “The process will be deepened in 2011 to support budget execution”, he

disclosed. The Business Analyst