We’ll surcharge agency heads over ghost names – Auditor General

The Auditor General Mr. Daniel Domlevo has warned that heads of government institutions who fail to report the departure of an employee from the public service to the Controller and Accountant Generals Department will be surcharged.

He says they owe it a responsibility under section 299 of the Financial Administration Regulation, to inform relevant departments of the CAGD and other institutions to end payment to persons who separates from employment.

Speaking at a nationwide Payroll and Personnel Verification Audit of the Government of Ghana’s Payroll in Takoradi in the Western Region, Mr. Daniel Domelovo, explained that many heads of institutions over the years have failed to comply with the provisions of section 299, but his administration will ensure that such heads are made to pay for all monies wrongly paid to non-existent employees.

He said “we are looking for people who are not supposed to be on the payroll. The heads of department has a duty under the Financial Administration Regulation, section 299 which requires of them that, when a person separates, either dies, retires, resigns, etc. you have a duty to inform the section which is responsible for the payroll processing, so that their names are taken away from the payroll.”

He continued that “we are all aware it takes sometime before that is done. So the law continues to say that from the very day that the person separates, write to the person’s banks to tell the bankers that he or she is no longer in employment, and therefore, anytime the salary comes, it should be credited to the salary suspense accounts so that it goes back to the government coffers. This many times the heads do not do”.

Mr. Domvelo accused officials of hiding their complicity behind backdated letters.

“all that you do is that you wait till anytime there are exercises like these before you write letters and backdate them, and then come to say that see, I wrote to GES, I wrote to Controller, etc. but the one to the banks, where is it?”.

He concluded that “… if the bank didn’t receive the letter, it means you didn’t inform them that the money should go back into the consolidated fund. We are going to hold you accountable. We are not going to look for the ghost to collect the money; it’s not our job. Our work is to identify ghost on your payroll. We will take the money from you; being a head teacher, head of the department, being a service commander; we are going to take the money from you because under regulation 299, you owe it a responsibility to the state to ensure that only people who are working for you are on your payroll”.

The Auditor General and his team are in the western region to carry out a region-wide Payroll and Personnel Verification Audit of the Government of Ghana’s Payroll. In all, some 41,000 government employees in the area are expected to be audited.

Out of the number, the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Area harbors 11,000. The remaining 30,000 civil servants are in the 21 districts in the region.

The team is expected to spend two weeks at different headcount centers in many public institutions.