Politicians behind ghost names on govt payroll - CLOGSAG

The Civil and Local Government Staff Association Ghana (CLOGSAG) has accused politicians of being behind the incidence of 'ghost names' and the ballooning public sector wage bill.

According to the Executive Secretary of the Association, Isaac Bampoe Addo, there was evidence that the 'ghost names' that could not be identified on the public payroll were Personal Assistants of some Ministers of state.

Speaking at the Fifth Nathan Annang Quao Lectures on the theme “Abuse of political power in the Ghanaian Civil Service: the bane of National Development,” Mr Bampoe Addo said politicians had interfered with Civil Service principles over the years.

He further indicated that politicians had abused the use of political power by outsourcing consultancy services to political party apparatchiks.

"Recruiting of Party apparatchiks as consultants to perform routine Civil Service functions and paying them higher salaries thus ballooning the Civil Service wage bill as reported in the 2020 auditor general's report for MMDAs... Evidence reveals that the so-called ghost names that cannot be identified in the civil service payroll have turned out to be personal assistants of politicians,” Mr. Bampoe Addo said.

He said the outsourcing of Civil Service functions had affected the quality of service provided by Civil Service organisations as they were undertaken without the required institutional guidance and expertise.

Mr Bampoe Addo also stated that foreign training and development workshops had been hijacked by politicians and party functionaries to the detriment of the Civil Service.