Dr. Oduro Osae
The Director General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr. Oduro Osae has revealed that the Ministry of Health and public universities were the institutions captured most with payroll infractions.
The Director General revealed this in an interview with the media when the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) visited the Internal Audit Agency to monitor its payroll under the National Payroll Monitoring Exercise.
“When you look at the public sector payroll, per the work we have done on accounts following a directive from the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, the risky areas where we think these payroll and unearned salaries are on the increase, include the education, health sector, local government sector, if we don’t keep an eye on the payroll of these sectors, it will keep bloating and it will affect us.”
“There are people who go on sabbatical and some never return, some go on study leave with pay and after graduation, they fail to return but have their names on the payroll, some of them do not even come to work. There are instances where people are employed in the public sector and their bosses ask them to stay at home because there’s no place to sit, they are home and government pays them,” he added.
The Commission, a week ago announced its intended exercise to rid the government’s payroll of infractions and other anomalies that need to be corrected.
According to him, his outfit has advised the Ministry of Finance and the Accountant General’s Department to delete the names of all staff captured in these payroll infractions.
The Chief Executive Officer for the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Benjamin Arthur, for his part said the commission ahead of the exercise warned individuals and heads of government institutions to desist from such acts.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah