Public sector workers have been asked by Deputy Finance Minister, Mona Quartey, to be “honest enough” to return double payments that are mistakenly wired into their accounts as salary.

Speaking on Business Focus with Paa Kwesi Asare on STARR 103.5 FM about getting rid of ghost names from the public payroll–as a means of reducing the public wage bill–Quartey appealed to the conscience of public sector workers return overpayments to their employers should such mistakes occur.

Currently, government spends close to 70 percent of tax revenue on paying about 600,000 public sector workers.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said using that much money on emoluments was unsustainable.

Speaking on the backdrop of a Ghc7.9 million payment fraud recently exposed by the Bureau of National Investigations at the National Service Scheme, Quartey said: “A system is only as good as the person who is using it. So those who are using it: Controller and Accountant General, the [Ministries, Departments and Agencies] (MDAs), the receivers of the salary themselves, I mean to the extent that I would say if you got a double cheque, be honest enough to go back and say: ‘I’ve been paid twice’”.

“I’ve seen people who’ve done that and returned what they did not deserve. So it’s about us as well. The system will help us but will not replace us. We need to be honest with ourselves. When we decided as a nation that we would help the Cedi to do well, look what happened. The Cedi did appreciate and hopefully it will stabilise”, she noted.