11,300 ‘Ghosts’ Under Watch

…1,157 Busted

By Liberty Amewode, News Editor

Salary payments for 1,157 apparent ghost workers have been suspended with effect
from April 2010, while verification work is also on-going on about 11,300
workers classified as Verifiable Potential Ghosts with a view to detect more
ghost workers.
This followed a headcount of the 283,000 staff of the Public Education Sector
conducted in July-August 2009, with data collected from nearly 20,000
educational establishments.
According to the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena
Duffuor, who revealed this in the 2011 budget which he presented to parliament a
fortnight ago, the situation reflected good progress on the headcount, saying
similar audits will be launched for other sectors or ministries to be completed
by the end of 2011.
The minister said the current stand-alone payroll database will be integrated
and upgraded into the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information Systems
(GIFMIS) once its roll-out has been completed.
“Pending this integration, for agencies already on the payroll database, new
recruitment will continue to be verified by the Controller and Accountant
General’s Department on a continuous basis to ensure appropriate budget
authorization”, he added.
Throwing more light on Public Financial Management Reforms, the minister said
the government has begun implementing major reforms in a bid to strengthen the
public financial management system judging from the need for it to ensure value
for money and the efficient delivery of services.
The reforms, said Dr Duffuor, include the transformation of public financial
reporting systems through the implementation of the GIFMIS, the major focus of
which is the upgrading and fresh installation of Oracle Public Sector Financial
e-Business Suite software, adding that the setup and reimplementation is the
over-arching financial accounting, control, audit and reporting of the
Government of Ghana budget appropriation.
He said the GIFMIS was expected to improve the effectiveness of service delivery
and the allocation of resources, using new tools and processes to ensure more
accountable, effective and transparent government.
The minister disclosed that the government has begun the introduction Programme
Based Budgeting (PBB) over the next five years as part of efforts to address
existing weaknesses in the budgeting system.
He observed that the current Activity Based Budgeting was too detailed,
cumbersome and does not lend itself easily to performance management due to over
emphasis on inputs and activities instead of outputs and results.
The specific budget reform, he noted, will therefore help introduce performance
orientation, flexibility and simplicity in the budget system to improve resource
allocation and utilization.

Dr. Duffuor made known of a preparatory work to begin on a new and comprehensive
budget law to effectively regulate the management of the entire public finances,
saying a comprehensive legislative review will be undertaken of all existing
legislations governing public financial management to ensure compliance with the
constitution and effective management of public funds.
He said his ministry has also established a contract database framework which
tracks the engagement in contracts by all ministries, departments and agencies,
the benefit of which is to establish the potential liabilities on government
finances. “The process will be deepened in 2011 to support budget execution”, he
disclosed. The Business Analyst