A Special Audit Report of the Auditor-General (A-G) on payroll and personnel verification exercise had revealed that 21 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) could not account for the whereabouts of 7,823 employees on their payrolls as at June 2018. The Government lost GH₵467,634,792.00 from the public purse as a result of the unaccounted-for employees.

The A-G conducted the nationwide payroll and personnel verification exercise from June 2018 to January 2020 to provide an independent assurance on the overall payroll management systems of government. The audit was conducted in line with Section 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584). The audit was also to assess the efficiency of the Controller and Accountant General Department’s national payroll system and the employee records managed through the Electronic Salaries Payment Voucher by heads of MDAs/Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

The Table below presents the details on the affected MDAs, the number of employees for each of them and the cost involved.

In addition, the report showed that employees who had passed the compulsory retirement age were still on the payroll. There were salary grade mismatch and employees without biometric details. The A-G attributed these infractions in the payroll management system to weak coordination between the MDAs and the MMDAs on one hand and the CAGD on the other.

The A-G recommended that the CAGD should delete the names of the unaccounted-for employees on the payroll and collaborate with heads of the affected MDAs to fully recover the unearned salaries and pay same into the General Government Accounts (Consolidated Fund). The A-G also urged the CAGD to take steps to improve the controls in the systems to minimize the recurrence of such infractions in the future.