Some public sector workers on ‘leave without pay’ are still getting paid by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, IMANI boss Franklin Cudjoe has alleged.
According to him, some workers on the public sector payroll also get paid double salaries when moving from their old salary structure to a new one.
The revelations, according to the IMANI boss, are contained in an audit report on Ghana’s public sector payroll by an international firm.
Presidential Staffer Dr. Clement Apaak had challenged the IMANI boss to make public his ‘intercepted’ audit report on Ghana’s payroll after he had threatened to expose the Controller and Accountant General’s Department over payroll discrepancies.
In reaction, Cudjoe posted on his Facebook wall Monday: “Currently, there are instances of salaries being processed for employees on leave without pay, study leave without pay and unauthorized leave.
“We recommend that the system be configured to exclude employees on unpaid leave before processing of payments. Processing of unearned salaries for employees on unpaid leave in the system should be stopped with immediate effect in order to avoid further financial loss to the State.In addition, adequate recovery measures should be in place to ensure unearned salaries are retrieved accordingly”.
Below are details of the ‘intercepted’ copy of an audit on Ghana’s public sector payroll posted by the IMANI boss
i. The IPPD2 processes salaries for employees on unpaid leave.
Currently, there are instances of salaries being processed for employees on leave without pay, study leave without pay and unauthorized leave. We recommend that the system be configured to exclude employees on unpaid leave before processing of payments. Processing of unearned salaries for employees on unpaid leave in the system should be stopped with immediate effect in order to avoid further financial loss to the State. In addition, adequate recovery measures should be in place to ensure unearned salaries are retrieved accordingly.
ii. Double payment of salaries when employees move from old salary to new salary structure.
IPPD2 processes double payments when employees move from old salary structure to the new one. The new salary element gets attached to the employee while the old salary does not get terminated in the IPPD2. This is primarily due to the existing manual process of terminating old salary structure and assigning the new structure to employees. This current practice must be stopped, and the old salary structure elements be terminated in the system automatically when an employee moves from the old structure to a new structure. Added controls should be incorporated within IPPD2 to validate or check the salary structure the employee is on prior to calculating the monthly salary.
iii. Payment of Income Tax can be avoided in IPPD2.
Income Tax computation logic built in IPPD2 can be bypassed by users and any amount entered is processed by IPPD2 as income tax. Access to modify/bypass income tax computations built in IPPD2 is a major risk and should be disabled with immediate effect.
iv. Payment of salaries to potential “Ghost Employees”
There are 3,288 potential duplicate employees that have been identified in IPPD2 having identical first name, last name, national identifier, date of birth and joining date. This could potentially cause a major loss of revenue to GoG. As a matter of urgency, duplicate checks on employee first name, last name, date of birth and other key parameters if applicable should be introduced into IPPD2. Data entered during hire should be validated and rejected/notified in case of potential duplicates.
v. Duplicate/Invalid Bank Accounts in IPPD2
There are 2,498 invalid/duplicate Bank Accounts being used by 55,219 employees in IPPD2. This is a major gap in IPPD2 as duplicate accounts could be used to perpetuate fraud
The validation of account numbers during input is very critical to mitigating the risk of fraud in payroll processing. —————————————————- I AM STILL WARMING UP……….
