Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Attta has ordered the removal of 26 589 names of public workers from the government’s payroll.

“Those affected have not been registered on the new SSNIT biometric system, despite several directives to do so,” the Ministry clarified in a statement.

Mr. Ofori Atta during the presentation of the 2017 budget vowed to protect the public purse by plugging all the leakages in the system.

The statement added “the Minister requested that, the Controller and Accountant General on the 10th of February 2017, inform all public servants on the Government of Ghana mechanized payroll system who had not registered on the new SSNIT biometric system to do so by the end of February 2017,” warning that salaries of unregistered workers had been suspended indefinitely until their SNNIT re-registration is completed .

“This directive will come into effect on the April 2017 payroll. Consequently, those not registered with SSNIT, as directed shall be treated as “Ghosts” going forward and shall as such be removed from the payroll for April 2017.”

Nonetheless, the statement noted that SSNIT is adequately prepared to validate any affected pensioner, across the country, “who make themselves available to be counted and validated going forward."

Several mobile enrollment kits, it said are on standby to cater for affected pensioners who may not be able to travel to their nearest SSNIT district offices to complete the validation process.

“These two directives, resulting in the identification of close to 50,000 “Ghost” names on the payroll and Pensions Registry, are expected to save the country some GH35 million in payroll cost on a monthly basis or a total of over GHS250 million in 2017 alone,” it pointed out.