533 individuals with multiple identities drawing multiple salaries have been eliminated from government’s payroll following an audit, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia announced.
Dr Bawumia made the announcement during a recent Internal Auditors Conference in Accra where he was the keynote speaker.
The Vice President revealed that a recent joint exercise undertaken by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) and National Identification Authority (NIA) discovered the anomaly.
The 533 individuals were found with multiple identities up to 3 and were drawing salaries for all three identities.
In a statement, Dr Bawumia called for all those found guilty to be prosecuted.
“At the 2022 Internal Auditors Conference in Accra today I underscored the significance of internal auditors to the quest to improve financial mobilisation and ensure fiscal discipline, adding that they should be seen as major stakeholders in the process.
“I used the platform to charge our law enforcement agencies and state prosecutors to accelerate the processes of bringing people who engage in corrupt practices to book,” the Veep recounted in a statement.
“The exercise also found 533 workers on government payroll with multiple identities (some people had three different employee numbers). Prosecution of those found culpable should proceed accordingly,” he added.
He further revealed that the exercise also found that out of 602,000 workers on the CAGD payroll, a stunning 148,000 were found to have identification which did not match any biometric data at the National Identification Authority.
“A recent exercise undertaken by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) and National Identification Authority (NIA) revealed that a startling 148,000 government workers out of a total of 602,000 workers on the payroll of the CAGD have been found to have identifications which do not match any biometric identification at the NIA, after a biometric audit,” the Vice President revealed.
Key Role of Auditors In Ending Corruption
Speaking on the theme “Injecting Fiscal Discipline in Resource Mobilization and Utilization for Sustainable Development” during the conference, Bawumia described internal auditors as “gatekeepers of financial discipline whose crucial role can not be over emphasised.”
“The role of internal auditors as gatekeepers of financial discipline with covered entities cannot be over-emphasized. Internal auditors ensure that the processes of public financial management are complete by ensuring that the required controls are working whilst drawing management attention to avoid pitfalls in public spending.” the Veep said.
“By their advise and vigilance public sector waste and abuses have been minimized and annual infractions reported by the Auditor-General have seen some level of decline between 2019 and 2020.” Bawumia added.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com
