Auditor-General Spots over 10,000 Ghost Names on Gov’t Payroll

The Audit Service has detected over 10,680 employees on the government’s payroll with “insufficient justification” for their continued existence on the payroll as at June 2018.

 
These names were detected after the service reportedly carried out a nationwide Payroll and Personnel Verification Audit in line with Section 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584).
 
“Analysis of responses received from Heads of Ministries, Departments and other Agencies (MDAs), as well as Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies on the payroll exercise held in 2018/2019, shows that there is no or insufficient justification for the continued existence of 10,689 employees on the Payroll as at June 2018,” stated George Swanzy Winful, the Deputy Auditor-General in a statement.
 
 
The Auditor-General has issued a notice that it will disallow these detected names unless they can justify their inclusion on the government payroll “Notice is hereby given that, the Auditor-General intends to disallow the continuous existence of all un-accounted for employees on the payroll and surcharge the amounts involved against heads of department, heads of the management units and the persons involved.”
 
To avoid the disallowance and surcharge, the state auditor has invited all persons on the list of questionable names are to present themselves for enumeration from 28 January 2020 to 11 February 2020.
 
Affected persons are required to take along  several verification documents, including their biometric registration forms the Social Security and National Investment Trust (SSNIT) recent payslips, all their academic certificates, passports, etc.
 
“Please take note that failure to honour this final invitation will result in the Auditor-General exercising his powers under Article 187(7) to disallow the existence and surcharge such persons on the payroll,” the Audit Service warned.