A-G report exposes Finance Ministry over payment of over GH¢1m to 3 'ghosts'

The Auditor General’s report for the year 2021 has revealed that the Ministry of Finance paid a total amount of GH¢1,112,896.00 as salaries to three persons whose records could not be found as employees of the ministry.

According to the Auditor General, the payment was contrary to Regulation 86 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378).

The names of the said individuals who received the payments were given by the Auditor General as; Allotey Eamon James, Kwakye Nana Yaw Asiedu and Adam Habibu.

The three were paid in total amounts of GH¢206,433.00, GH¢535,738.80 and GH¢370,724.16 as gross salaries for 12 months in the case of the person and 24 months in the case of the other two.

“We noted that, three persons were paid a total of GH¢1,112,895.96 as salaries for the period January 2020 to December 2021, but we could not trace their personal files and names on the nominal roll of the Ministry,” the report said.

As part of its report, the Auditor General recommended that, “the amount of GH¢1,112,895.96 should be recovered from the Chief Director and the payroll validators of MoF.”

As referenced by the Auditor General in his report, Regulation 86 of the Public Management Regulations, 2019 (L. I. 2378) states that, “a Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity shall ensure that only the names of personnel who are eligible to receive payment for work done are kept on the payment voucher and keep records of the nominal roll of the covered entity in a manner that ensures that the correct amount of emolument is paid.”

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