Accountant Gen Dept accused over 'ghost names'

 A policy think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), has accused staff of the Controller and Accountants General Department (CAGD) of stifling the country's efforts to rid the payroll of ‘ghosts’ names.

Over the years, IFS said staff of the CAGD had dubiously bloated the list of public employees under the care of the department with non-existing workers, thereby making it virtually impossible for the country to completely rid the document of 'ghosts.'

It is estimated that the country expends about GH¢100 million every month in salaries and other emoluments for these ‘ghosts’, which refers to the names of people who are deceased, not working, retired and/or resigned but are still on the payroll.

In March, last year, the Center for Policy Analysis (CEPA) estimated that about 1.3 per cent of that year’s total economic output, measured by gross domestic product (equivalent to GH¢1 billion), was paid to ‘ghosts.’

The IFS said its analysis showed that staff of Controller had over the years colluded with dubious staff of the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to bloat the payroll with non-existing names, a charge the CAGD denied.

When contacted, the Controller and Accountant General, Madam Grace Francisca Adzroe, said the existence of ‘ghosts’ on the payroll should be blamed on the unwillingness of heads of the various MMDAs to update the department of active staff prior to payments of salaries.

“Now, we have put in place a robust system which ensures that even before we pay, the list of people under the care of each MMDA is sent to the unit head for verification before the money is paid and that is working very well,” she said.

The exercise led to a temporary halt of salaries to over 47,000 staff without up-to-date bank account numbers.

After investigations, Madam Adzroe said over 44,000 of the affected people were reinstated on the payroll and the remaining 2,000 names forwarded to the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) for thorough checks.

The IFS solution

The talk of ‘ghosts’ names on the payroll comes at a time the Ministry of Finance is hoping that a myriad of factors, including the suspension of salaries of workers without up-to-date personnel records and bank accounts, implementation of Electronic Salary Payment Voucher (eSPV), continuation of head count, validation of SSNIT numbers and migration of all subvented agencies onto the mechanised payroll, would help rid the data of ‘ghosts’.

“To ensure effectiveness of the payroll reforms, the CAGD has been directed to stop processing the payroll for any agency and management unit that does not provide an update of the monthly report that is now given to all MMDAs,” the minister, Mr Seth Terkper, said at his mid-year review to Parliament on July 21.

While admitting that such exercises had chalked some successes over the years, the Executive Director of IFS, Prof. Newman Kwadwo Kusi, said the government must stop trusting the CAGD to clean the payroll.

Rather, he said, the payroll must be handed over to a private firm on contract to audit, clean and be returned to CADG for management.

That, he said, would help rid the data off the ‘ghost names’ while saving the nation some revenue.

“The problem is a human one and that has to do with the officials at the CAGD who manage the payroll and some of their counterparts in the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs). Because CAGD staff are personally benefiting from the weaknesses in the system, it will be to their disadvantage to have a very clean, robust and well-established payroll,” he told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS on July 14.

“If you take a closer look at the cleaning exercises over the years, you will realise that no sooner than one cleaning exercise has been completed, then the same issue of ghost names in the payroll pops up. I can go through all these exercises to prove that point,” Prof. Kusi said, pointing to a bunch of documents comprising memoranda of understandings (MoUs), contracts, letters and memos on payroll cleansing dating back to the 2000s.

He explained that outsourcing the payroll could be done for a short period of time, within which government would agree with the firm to pay it a certain percentage of the savings to be made from the cleaning exercise.

“Afterwards the private sector person will put in place all the necessary controls and checks to ensure that it becomes difficult for those ‘ghosts’ and duplications to come back,” he said.

Re-emergence of 'ghosts'

Over the years, successive governments have embarked on payroll cleaning exercises aimed at saving the nation millions of cedis. Unfortunately, however, not many results have been achieved as figures on the number of 'ghosts' on the payroll continue to swell, almost after each exercise.

In 2001 for instance, over 30,000 'ghost' names were reportedly expunged from the register of teachers with the Ghana Education Service (GES) after the service had conducted a head count of workers under its care.

To date  the problem still persists. Last year, the Ministry of Finance reported that the implementation of the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher (E-SPV) had led to the detection and removal of almost 3,200 ‘ghosts’ in the Greater Accra Region alone.

These revelation brought to the fore the murky nature of payroll cleansing in the country.

Historical cleansing of payroll and associated costs

2001: Over 30,000 'ghost' names expunged from GES payroll after a head count.

2011: Ministry of Finance signs US$2.4 million project with 3M Cogent of USA to clean payroll. In less than a year, the ministry reports that over 34,000 ‘ghosts’ have been detected and expunged.

May 2012: IMF estimates that payment of salaries and other emoluments to ‘ghosts’ is costing the nation about GH¢100 million a month.

January 2013: 2,913 ‘ghosts’ expunged from the payroll of GES.

November 2013: 1,052 'ghosts' expunged from the payroll of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

2014: Controller implements Electronic Salary Payment Voucher (E-SPV), resulting in the detection and removal of 3,200 ‘ghosts’ in the Greater Accra Region alone between April and June that year.

March 2014: Policy think-tank, Center for Policy Analysis (CEPA), estimates that about 1.3 per cent of 2014 GDP, equivalent to GH₵1 billion, was paid to 'ghosts' in 2013.

Meanwhile, the public sector wage bill has risen from GH¢6 billion in 2011 to about GH¢12 billion as of December 2014. The number of employees on the public payroll was reported as 715,600 as of April, this year.