OSP Discovers “Ghost” School In Kumbungu with Workers on Govt Payroll

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has unearthed a non-existent primary school in the Kumbungu District of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Northern Region with staff members on government payroll.

It is unknown how long the “ghost” school and its purported workers have been in place, but this was revealed by the OSP in its recent report on a piloted corruption risk assessment and investigation into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in respect of Government Payroll Administration.

The investigations done in conjunction with the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) focused on educational institutions under the GES and the Tamale Teaching Hospital in the Northern Region.

The name of the school was not published; however, the report asserted that checks revealed it “did not exist at all”.

“Yet, this non-existent contrived entity was represented as staffed and the purported staff were being validated monthly and being paid salaries. It is extremely worrisome that a non-existent entity had been designated as a functioning District Assembly Primary School and the data of the artificially created staff had found its way into the government payroll system for regular payments.”

The OSP and the CAGD has already initiated an investigation into the educational institutions under GES in the Northern Region to identify persons behind the fabrication.