Deputy Auditor-General, George Winful, is calling for rigorous scrutiny by government institutions of job applicants' documents before offering them employment, as their checks reveal some employees entered with fake certificates.

Addressing a news conference in Cape Coast on Friday, 27 July 2018, after an audit of the payroll of public sector workers in the Central Region, Mr Winful said: “If the signals we are beginning to see are anything to go by, then we will encourage heads of institutions in their review of employees. We have had an instance where some employees have used other people’s certificates for employment”.

He continued: “We can imagine if such a person is in the classroom teaching, it could be the reason why we are registering poor results in the secondary schools”.

Mr Winful further raised concerns about salaries that are being paid to civil servants based on fake promotions.

Government has begun a nationwide exercise to clear ghost names from the country’s payroll.

This move forms part of plans to curb excessive expenditure on salaries to safeguard the national purse.

The exercise is a joint collaboration between the Auditor-General and the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

The Auditor-General’s office will conduct an assessment after completing the exercise in Cape Coast and proceed to another region.

The office has revealed that people who are found culpable in engaging in payroll fraud, will be prosecuted.