CAGD auditing payroll system to identify officials approving 'ghost' salaries

The Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) has said it is relying on its payroll audit trail system to identify officials responsible for processing and validating "ghost" salaries on the government public payroll.

In a radio interview with Citi FM on Tuesday, [August 26, 2025], the Controller and Accountant-General, Mr Kwasi Agyei said his outfit was moving beyond simple recovery of ghost salary refunds to tracking and holding accountable those who facilitated the payments.

He explained that names of deceased, retired, dismissed, or transferred workers, as well as those on leave without pay, continue to appear on payrolls due to lapses in monthly validations.

According to him, validators within Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) approve these entries even when the individuals should not be paid.

“We can track,” Mr Agyei stated, noting that the Oracle-based payroll software allows his department to trace who processed or validated irregular allowances. “Once we have the staff ID, we interrogate our system and find out at this particular time who processed and paid allowances to these people.”

Mr Agyei confirmed that his department has already secured copies of audit reports from the Ghana Education Service to help them compile names and staff IDs of all individuals who benefited from ghost salaries. He said the system tracing will extend to both internal staff and MDA validators.

He stressed that merely recovering ghost salary payments was insufficient and pledged to forward findings to the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for further action.

“It is not about the money. We need to get to the root cause of the problem,” he said.

The CAGD has already begun collaborating with the OSP to ensure that those found culpable are prosecuted once investigations are completed, he added.