Unauthorized Salaries Draining National Coffers

The Auditor General and Serious Fraud Office Reports have revealed that for every one million cedis paid in wages, salaries and allowances, about 58,000 cedis were unauthorized. Again for every one million cedis collected by the Internal Revenue Service as income tax, about 70,000 leaked through payroll fraud.

The fraud, according to economic experts is fast becoming the country’s biggest problem, as billions of cedis are lost annually.

At a round table discussion on the Auditor General’s report with specific refrence to ‘ghost names,’ participants agreed that the problem was becoming alarming and therefore needed serious attention to expunge it from the system.

A senior fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Dr Amoako Tuffuor in a paper said the practice is not confined to one Ministry or to remote districts alone. “Payroll fraud is as likely to be committed in Accra, Kumasi as well as in Tolon/Kumbungu,” he said.

Dr Amoako Tuffuor recommended that the tenure of office of officers in a position to manipulate payrolls should change mandatorily and should address their operational weaknesses and technical vulnerabilities. Spending officers and heads of departments must also be made accountable for the accuracy and the timeliness of the payroll confirmation reports.