GHC150m in irregular payments,14,000 ghost workers discovered in Payroll audit – Ato Forson

Over 14,000 employees who cannot be verified and 53,307 unpaid employees are among the serious irregularities in Ghana’s public sector salary administration that were discovered during a nationwide payroll audit, according to Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson.

The minister stated that the Ghana Audit Service, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Finance, has completed91% of a thorough payroll audit in all 16 regions while presenting the 2025 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament on Thursday, July 24, 2025.

“So far, the Audit Service has not been able to identify or verify more than 14,000 workers,” he stated.

53,307 people who were classified as retired, reassigned, terminated, on unpaid leave, or even deceased are still receiving government payroll salaries, he disclosed.

“The Audit Service expects to recover a minimum of GHS150.4 million in unearned salaries from these separated staff over the 2023 and 2024 period alone.”

The findings, according to Dr. Forson, are concerning, and in the future, stringent enforcement of payroll validation procedures is imperative.

“Going forward, we will enforce the monthly payroll validation system and strictly apply sanctions to anyone who violates the process of paying salaries,” he mentioned.

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