GSS to visit health facilities to correct wrongful deletion of names

Accra, May 23, GNA - The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) is to visit health facilities from June 2-6 to correct wrongful deletion of names from the payroll following a census of public sector health workers last year.

A statement issued by the GSS in Accra on Friday said the names of some health workers had been deleted from the payroll inadvertently after the exercise aimed at having comprehensive and accurate information on the stock, profile and distribution of public sector health workers on government payroll.

It was also to have accurate information on the number and location of workers who, for various reasons, had been out of the system but whose names were still on the payroll.

It said provisional results of the six-week exercise indicated that out of a total of 51,611 health workers on the Controller and Accountant General's Department mechanised payroll, 45,672 (88.5 per cent) were enumerated and confirmed to be at post.

The remaining 5,560 were not available for enumeration and classified as not at post.

"Unfortunately, names of those 'not at post' were deleted from the payroll, effective March 2008."

The GSS said following the deletion of these names, about 2,770 had completed supplementary verification forms administered by the Ministry of Health.

"To date about half the number of those classified as 'not at post' has still not been identified."

GSS said interviews with some staff who completed the verification forms revealed several possibilities, including the fact that some workers were at post during the October 2007 census but were classified as "not at post". Some of the workers classified as "not at post" were actually absent at the time of the census for genuine reasons while others though not at post did not present themselves and missed the visiting census teams. GSS also found that others were not at post for good reason but no documentary proof was provided to the visiting teams and therefore were not recognised. "It has also been confirmed that names of about 400 personnel 'at post' were inadvertently deleted from the payroll. These are being reinstated immediately." GSS said further specific actions were being taken to address the problem of possible wrongful deletions from the payroll. These include ascertaining that all the completed health sector census forms were indeed processed and arranging to revisit all facilities in which people were identified as not at post.

It is also checking the completed verification forms against the completed health sector census forms to establish the claim of many that they were enumerated during the six-week exercise. GSS apologised for the "extreme inconvenience" caused to the affected workers and gave the assurance that every effort was being made to complete the final validation process expeditiously so that their salaries can be reinstated.