Auditor-General Recovers GH¢10m Unearned Salaries – CID to Prosecute Validation Officials

The Office of the Auditor-General has recovered GH¢10 million from individuals who received salaries they did not deserve, in what is fast becoming one of the most aggressive payroll-cleaning exercises in recent years.

The recovered funds, paid voluntarily by implicated individuals, have been remitted into the Consolidated Fund at the Bank of Ghana. The refunds were made within the past two months as part of an ongoing special audit into unearned salaries.

Auditor-General Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic, confirmed that the audit had uncovered 53,311 public sector workers who had formally exited the service but continued to receive salaries. This irregularity has cost the state over GH¢150 million.

The report, which covers 2023 to April 2025, paints a grim picture of Ghana’s payroll management system across Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

Although the government’s human resource system recorded staff separations due to retirement, termination, resignation, or even death, the information was not transmitted to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD). As a result, salaries continued to be paid.

Out of the 53,311 separated staff, 2,446 were paid after their exit dates, amounting to GH¢150.36 million in “unearned salaries”.

“These individuals are not expected to be present for headcounts, which means they were essentially ghost workers during the period,” the report noted.

Mr Asiedu said the GH¢10 million recovery so far represents voluntary repayments by beneficiaries who were flagged. He welcomed the trend, describing it as a “positive development” that saved the state resources that would have been spent in lengthy legal processes.

“Recovering the money is one thing, but ensuring accountability and preventing a recurrence is another. My office is collaborating with the CID to identify and go after the persons who validated these unearned salaries,” he stressed.

He added that payroll officers, HR personnel, controllers, and heads of institutions whose negligence or complicity enabled the fraud would face prosecution. Dossiers are already being prepared for submission to the police.

President John Dramani Mahama, at his maiden media encounter at the Jubilee House, revealed that the Attorney-General’s Office and the Judicial Service were preparing to establish special courts to fast-track Auditor-General’s reports.

He said such courts would ensure speedy prosecution of individuals who abuse the public purse and help recover stolen funds.

Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson earlier disclosed during the 2025 Mid-Year Budget Review that 53,311 ghost names had been flagged, with potential recoveries of GH¢150.4 million.

The ghost’s menace is not new. Auditor-General’s reports over the years, including the 2022 report, consistently flagged millions of cedis in salaries paid to separated staff. Despite reforms such as the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD2), delays in communication between MDAs and the CAGD continue to undermine payroll integrity.

Mr Asiedu assured that the current audit will be sustained until every government agency is audited and all culpable persons held accountable.

He urged other beneficiaries of unearned salaries to refund the monies voluntarily before the law catches up with them.

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