Audit Dept. warns civil servants – “Don’t try to beat the system”

• Posted on August 14, 2018
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

The Deputy Auditor General in charge of the Central Government Audit Department, Mr. George Winful, has warned that civil servants who attempt to con the review process will be exposed.

According to him, it will be in the interest of pretenders to stay at home during the audit than to “force themselves to be persons they are not”.

This will attract serious sanctions, he said.

Speaking at a Payroll and Personnel Verification Audit of the Government of Ghana’s Payroll in Takoradi in the Western Region, Mr. George Winful explained that “we have asked you to come with the relevant information that will attest to the fact that you are the person on the government payroll. We are very serious about this. The risk of somebody, pretending to be somebody else and coming with interesting documentation including affidavits or whatever, to force himself to be somebody else, will require more proof”.

He continued that “if you say you are Kojo Manu and now you say you are Eric Mansa, we need more proof from your primary school up to date on what you are and when you changed”.

He however said “affidavits will be slightly lesser with women because obviously when they marry, there is a change of name and so on.

“We may be slightly mild on that. But when you come and say previously you were Agatha but now you say you are Mary, you are Florence etc.; we are going to be very serious about that”.

He concluded by sending a stern warning to persons who try to defraud the system with bulky documents that “…if you are trying to manipulate in that respect, you are advised to stay at home because if you show up boldly and continue to prove and prove, then there is more evidence to prove that you want to defraud the system. This is not the ordinary headcount as usual. This is more serious and it will come with more sanctions”.

The Western Region’s Payroll and Personnel Verification Audit of the Government of Ghana’s Payroll exercise is expected to audit some 41,000 government employees.

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

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

Source: CNR