A total of 35,000 ghost names have been deleted from the National Service Scheme payroll.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Executive Director of the National Service Secretariat (NSS), Michael Kpessah Whyte, revealed that the secretariat has already dismissed about 160 staff in connection with the development while others are also being processed for court.
“The scheme had dismissed about 168 of the staff who brought the name of the secretariat into disrepute. Others are also being processed for court…”
[contextly_sidebar id=”6dy1U2i46veUSk1zHDnjioGjxwj9gq4T”]Mechanisms to address payroll fraud
Mr. Whyte further indicated that the NSS had deployed some mechanisms to address these anomalies.
One of such interventions, according to him, is the introduction of the Inter-Bank payment and Settlement systems GhIPSS, to detect ghost names.
“We changed the system of payment because of too many human interferences…We introduced the GhIPSS to eliminate human interference and make sure that payments are made straight from the Central Bank to the personnel.”
According to him, the NSS had also eliminated individuals and agencies, who acted as middle men between the NSS and service personnel.
75,000 ghost names removed from payroll in 2014/2015
Some control measures activated by the NSS Secretariat prevented about 75,000 ghost names from entering the service payroll in the 2014/2015 service year.
That internal mechanism reportedly saved the nation GHc26.5 million which otherwise, would have gone into wrong pockets in that service year.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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