Out of some 522,478 supposed active public servants in Ghana, a total of 7,823 remain unaccounted-for at the end of an enumeration exercise, according to a report by the Auditor-General’s Department on payroll.

“We recommended that the Controller and Accountant General’s Department should ensure the termination of the unaccounted-for employees on the payroll."

“The heads of MDAs should also ensure the full recovery of the unearned salaries from the affected persons”, the report said.

The report added that a review of the records of the personnel during the enumeration exercise showed mismatches in the salary grades of some 1,200 employees when compared with their actual grades on their appointment/promotion letters.

To ensure that salaries earned by employees are commensurate with their current position or grade, the report recommended that the heads of ministries, departments and agencies as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, together with the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD), ensure that the affected employees are appropriately placed.

Discontinued Staff maintained on payroll

Owing to failure by CAGD to act on feedback from respective management heads, some 6,307 employees declared as “discontinued” through the ESPV system, continued to receive unearned salaries.

The report urged the CAGD to terminate the records of all the discontinued employees on the payroll and ensure the full recovery of all the unearned salaries.

For efficiency, it also recommended a seamless integration of the ESPV system with the payroll system thus resulting in prompt update of employee records.