Finance Ministry “Recovers GHC1.1Million Paid As Salaries To Ghost Names”

The Ministry of Finance has announced that it has recovered the GH¢1,112,895.96 paid as salaries to three “untraceable” personnel of the Ministry from January 2020 to December 2021.

The Deputy Minister for Finance, John Ampontuah Kumah addressing the issue said the amount was retrieved after the Ministry’s attention was drawn to it.

He tagged the payment as an “anomaly”.

In a tweet he said, “Kindly note that the funds paid were recovered when the attention of the Ministry was drawn to this anomaly”.

He explained that “The three Ghost names are personnel seconded from GRA, for whom there was some misunderstanding about which payroll they belonged to for the period of the secondment. The amounts paid have been recovered from GRA as indicated and the ministry will in due timeshare more details”.

In the Auditor General’s 2021 report on Ministries, Departments and Agencies, it was revealed that the Ministry paid three untraceable staff members namely: Allotey Eamon James, Kwakye Nana Yaw Asiedu and Adam Habibu the said amount.

The report stated that “we could not trace their personal files and names on the nominal roll of the Ministry”.

The A-G, therefore, directed that the amount should be recovered from the Chief Director and the payroll validators of the Ministry of Finance.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini