The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme, Dr. Michael Kpessah Whyte, has said public sector payroll fraud in Ghana can be eliminated provided key actors are willing to put the nation ahead of their selfish interests.
The Daily Graphic reported that Kpessah Whyte had prevented about 75,000 ghost names from getting into the service payroll in the 2014/2015 service year, thus saved the nation GHc26.5 million.
[contextly_sidebar id=”2RcCWbcN6KVj6aVHPe32vTCxAVgKs9Tm”]The revelation comes at a time discussions are rife about how to effectively clean up Ghana’s public payroll after critics claimed it was replete with ghost names.
However speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show,Mr. Whyte said Ghana will continue to battle with the problem of ghost names in public payroll system if various stakeholders refuse to sacrifice their interests.
“All the interests that are actually positioning themselves and jostling to take advantage of the conversation must be out,” he stated
He said tight security measures should also be put in place to ensure that the malfeasance is not repeated.
“All these conversation around about the payroll, we can bring in all the software that Steve Jobs and other people have presented to the world but if we don’t make sure that people we are paying on month to month basis are actually where they are supposed to be with their work, we will still end up having ghost names …”
Dr. Whyte took over the affairs of the National Service Secretariat after former Executive Director Alhaji Alhassan allegedly paid GH¢100,000 to silence investigators.
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By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah