Hot!
Ghost names ‘busted’ on MDAs payroll …state loses over GH¢467.6m -Auditor -General
The Auditor-General has revealed that ghost names on public sector payroll in 21 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have cost the state GH¢467,634,792.
The agencies include the Local Government Service, Ministries of Finance, Communication, Education, Agriculture, Health, Information, Interior, Youth and Sports, Chieftaincy, Foreign Affairs and Roads and Highways,
The rest are Justice and Attorney General, Environmental, Science, Technology and Innovation, Gender, Children and Social Protection, Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Lands and Natural Resources, Trade and Industry, Local Government and Rural Development, and the Judicial Service.
The report, a copy of which has been presented to the Speaker of Parliament for action revealed that the ‘ghosts’ involved are 7,823.
Conducted between June 2018 and January 2020, the report, in line with Section 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584), was to provide an independent assurance on the overall payroll management systems of government.
Signed by the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, the report recommended that the Controller and Accountant General Department (CAGD) terminated the contracts of the persons involved.
Apart from the above, the Auditor-General’s report also showed that employees who had passed the compulsory retirement age were still on the payroll.
“Our review showed that, names of 84 employees who had attained the statutory retirement age and had no contract extension were still on the payroll.
“To ensure full compliance with provisions of the Constitution, we urge the CAGD to ensure proper configuration of the payroll system,” the report advised.
On suspected case of personation, the Auditor-General said some employees used the academic certificate of others to secure employment into the public sector.
“Our examination showed that two or more employees shared same records. This became obvious as two or more bore same names and date of birth.
“Out of the 412 affected employees, our follow up to 46 sampled employees confirmed this assertion. We observed that whereas 23 of them were able to prove ownership of their academic certificates, 23 of them were unable to do so.
“To ascertain the authenticity of the outstanding 366 employees, we provided the details to the heads of the MDAs/MMDAs to investigate and submit a report for our further review within three months after the publication of this report.
“During our examination, we suspected a total of 19,203 academic certificates presented during the enumeration exercise to be fraudulent.
“To ascertain the authenticity of the certificates, we provided the respective awarding institutions with key control elements on the certificates examined, name, year of award, certificate serial number, and the name of the awarding instituting for confirmation.
“Though a total of 7,284 out of the 19,346 suspicious certificates were confirmed to be genuine, 61 were confirmed to be fake. They were unable to confirm 12,001 certificates owing to the challenges they encountered querying their data base on the variables provided.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
Hot!
Atuabo Gas Plant to Shut Down for Maintenance from August 16 to 30
The Ministry of Energy and Green Transition has announced that the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant in the Western Region will be shut down for scheduled maintenance from August 16 to August 30, 2025.
The Ministry said it had approved a request from the Ghana National Gas Company Ltd. to carry out the maintenance, describing it as essential for the continued safe and reliable operation of the plant.
In a statement, the ministry stated that during the shutdown period, Ghana Gas will temporarily stop supplying gas to allow for critical works such as inspections, repairs, and upgrades to key equipment and systems.
The Ministry explained that these activities will help improve the plant’s efficiency and overall performance.
To ensure the shutdown does not affect power supply, the Ministry said it is working with key players in the energy sector to deploy alternative fuel sources.
It assured the public that these measures will help keep electricity supply stable across the country.
The Ministry reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining reliable power supply and promised to give regular updates on the progress of the maintenance.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Hot!
”99% of prophecies in Ghana are most likely designed to extort money from unsuspecting victims” – Mussa Dankwah
Executive Director and Head of Global Research at Global InfoAnalytics, Ghana, Mussa K. Dankwah, has alleged that the majority of prophecies in the country are schemes to take money from people.
He claimed that 99% of such prophecies are targeted at powerful and wealthy individuals, especially those in politics, rather than ordinary citizens.
“They target the most powerful, the rich, and the political class. Ordinary people do not feature in their prophecies”
We should not fall for it. If they are genuine, they will pray over it hoping that God will avert it. But we are told in the Quran that what is written is written and what is not written can never happen. The Bible does not dispute this” Mr Dankwah said.
In a Facebook post, he urged Ghanaians to be vigilant and not become victims of deceptive religious practices.
“Don’t be a victim, biɛ wa ni fiii,” he warned, stressing that if a prophecy is truly from God, it should be handled with prayer and not used as a tool for financial gain.
By: Jacob Aggrey
