Finance Minister Manipulating Figures

Officials of the Accountant General’s department have challenged claims by the Finance Ministry and the Auditor General’s department that about 300 billion cedis is paid out to fictitious or ‘ghost’ names on government payroll. Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo-Marfo announced in February that the state loses about 300 billion cedis in payments of salaries to people whose names appear on government payroll but do not actually work for the public service, through some corrupt practices.

But a director of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, Daniel Domelivo, says the amount lost to the state in payroll fraud has been exaggerated. Speaking a forum on payroll fraud in Accra today, Mr. Domelivo said there are some inconsistencies in the reports of the Auditor General’s department which exaggerates the extent of the problem.

He says the auditor general’s department has failed to provide accurate data on the number of ‘ghost’ names on government payroll. Other speakers at the forum including Prof. John Aheto of the School of Administration called on government to show more commitment to the campaign against payroll fraud.