900 ex-students still draw allowances

About 900 students of the School of Hygiene in Tamale, who completed their studies seven years ago, are still withdrawing allowances as students from the government's payroll.

This is notwithstanding the fact that some of them have been employed.

Each student is said to be withdrawing GH¢200 a month and this has cost the nation GH¢15,120,004.

The deal was exposed during the biometric registration of employees on the payroll system, in Tamale.

The National Co-ordinator of the Biometric Registration of Active and Subvented Government Employees on the Mechanised payroll, Mr. George Afriyie Gyamfi, disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday.

He explained that the principal of the school should have informed the Controller and Accountant-General's Department to delete the names of the students on completion of their studies.

He said the failure of the school head to inform the department about the status of the students resulted in the continuous payment of allowances to them.

“These past students are still receiving allowances from the government payroll," he stressed.

Mr Gyamfi said many other students from various institutions who received allowances during their training such as teachers and nurses might be involved in the practice.

He said once students completed their studies, their names must be deleted

Mr Gyamfi said the names of the students would be deleted immediately and steps taken to retrieve the amount from them.

He warned those engaged in the practices to stop to avoid arrest and prosecution.

Mr Gyamfi stressed the need to streamline the payroll system to expose such deals and save the nation the millions of Ghana cedis.

The Head of Public Relations of the Ministry of Health Dan Osman Mwin, said that it was wrong for the students to continue to withdraw allowances from their banks when they had completed studies.