Over 14,000 individuals on the government payroll could not be identified or verified in an ongoing nationwide payroll audit, Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has disclosed.
Delivering the 2025 Mid-Year Budget Review to Parliament on Wednesday, Dr. Forson revealed that the Ghana Audit Service, which was commissioned to undertake the audit as part of efforts to sanitize the public sector payroll, has so far completed 91% of the exercise.
The audit spans all 16 regions and is part of the government’s broader fiscal consolidation strategy aimed at curbing public sector waste and plugging revenue leakages.
“In the course of this work, the Audit Service has not been able to verify the identities of over 14,000 workers currently receiving salaries from the public purse,” Dr. Forson said.
The minister further reported that 53,311 so-called “separated staff” were also found to be receiving salaries. These are individuals who have either retired, been reassigned, terminated, are on leave without pay, or are deceased — yet continue to draw salaries from the state.
“This unacceptable situation must end,” Dr. Forson stated, noting that the government is working to recover a minimum of GH¢150.4 million in unearned salaries from these separated staff over the 2023–2024 period.
To prevent recurrence, the minister announced that the government will strictly enforce monthly payroll validations and implement sanctions against public officials who approve payments for non-existent workers.
“Let me use this opportunity to strongly caution those who validate ghost names across the public service. They will be held personally liable for the loss of public funds,” he warned.
He stressed that the Ministry of Finance will continue to monitor the system rigorously and introduce further reforms to prevent ghost names from infiltrating the payroll in future.
The payroll audit comes at a time when Ghana is implementing a raft of fiscal measures under its post-COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth, which is supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Tackling payroll fraud has long been seen as a necessary step toward building a lean, efficient, and transparent public service.
The final 9% of the payroll audit is expected to be completed in the coming months. Parliament and civil society groups are expected to closely track the recovery of funds and implementation of sanctions to ensure accountability.
Ghana|Atinkanline.com
