Auditor-General to ‘chase’ 12,500 public sector workers for unearned salaries

• Posted on May 15, 2020May 15, 2020
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Auditor-General’s Department has hinted of plans of recovering all unearned salaries received by some public sector employees as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic is contained in the country.

This was captured in the Auditor-General’s report on the nationwide payroll and personnel verification audit as of June 2018 that has been presented to Parliament in accordance with Sections 13(e) and 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584).

The report notes GH¢ 564,234,442.74 as being unearned salaries to be recovered and paid into the Consolidated Fund.

“Out of the amount, total unearned salaries relating to unaccounted-for employees of GH¢467,634,792.00 was the highest followed by payments to discontinued employees totalling GH¢87,560,632.53.”

The report which is a payroll audit of all employees of public sector organizations including Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) showed that, during the validation exercise, 522,478 supposed active employees received salaries for the period under review.

But the nationwide payroll exercise which was to confirm their physical existence revealed that payments for employees totalling 12,563 were unaccounted for.

-Citi