Some 28,414 names of health sector employees are facing deletion from government payroll following the Health Ministry’s failure to respond to payroll audit observations by the Auditor General.
The Auditor General in 2018 opened a public sector payroll audit to rid the system of ghost names. The audit team subsequently forwarded its observations to the sector Ministry in February 2019 for action.
The Ministry had up to March 29, 2019, to respond to the audit observation (Auditor General Observation Memo No. AOM: PR/MOH/A/19) but has since failed to do so. Hence, the possibility of deleting details of 28,414 persons under the Ministry from the public sector payroll.
A distress letter dated March 20, 2019, and signed by the Ministry’s Chief Director, Nana Kwabena Adjei-Mensah cautioned the Health Ministry of dreadful consequences.
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“Our failure to respond to the observations raised by providing the necessary documentation to back any claim we may have means the affected employees may suffer deletion of their names from Government payroll. These names when deleted can only be restored when the affected staff goes to the High Court to challenge the deletion with evidence.”
The letter which is addressed to the Chief Executives of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and Christian Health Association of Ghana, all Regional Health Directors and the Head of Health Training Institutions Secretariat, admonishes affected employees to validate their records between Monday March 25 and Wednesday March 28 at four designated centres; Tamale, Kumasi, Cape Coast, and Accra.
The letter also directs the Ministry’s internal Directorate to “validate the data and report back for action”.
And for affected employees, “it must be noted that this is the last chance to correct any anomaly identified by the Auditor General before it becomes a report.”
