Special Prosecutor Releases Government Payroll Report Amid Impeachment Controversy, Saves Ghana GH¢34m

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has released a report detailing a collaborative investigation with the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) into the Government’s Payroll Administration.

This comes amid a recent petition for the impeachment of Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng.

The investigation, according to the OSP, led to the identification and removal of undeserving individuals from the government’s payroll, saving the country over GH¢34.2 million for the 2024 financial year alone.

The report is part of Phase 1 of the investigation, which focused on unwarranted salaries for employees of the Ghana Education Service and Ghana Health Service in the Northern Region.

“Out of the sampled high-risk number of 1,265 individuals on the payroll, the joint investigation and assessment cleared 1,020 individuals as regularly validated. The Special Prosecutor promptly unfroze the blocked salaries of the verified individuals upon timely clearance by the joint team, and they have been restored to the payroll system,” the report stated.

“A total amount of GH¢2,854,144.80 was identified as unearned monthly salaries being paid to deceased, retired, vacated, missing, or unknown individuals (‘Ghost Names’) from their respective effective dates to January 2024, when it was blocked by the Special Prosecutor.”

The report further noted, “The blocking of GH¢2,854,144.80 and the removal from the Government Payroll of the corresponding deceased, retired, post vacators, the missing, and those whose whereabouts are unknown has saved the Republic an amount of GH¢34,249,737.6 for the 2024 financial year, with potential future savings for every year the unearned salaries would have gone undetected.”

The OSP and CAGD are also pursuing legal actions against individuals involved in promoting non-existent schools, validating payments to deceased, untraceable, retired individuals, and those who have vacated their positions. Efforts are being made to recover unearned salaries paid in respect of these individuals.

The investigation will expand to the remaining fifteen regions in Phase I of the operation, with internal control measures being implemented to reduce the occurrence of processing and paying unearned salaries.