The Finance Ministry says it has recovered the GH¢1.1 million paid to non-staff of the Ministry which was reported by the Auditor-General.

The Ministry said it recovered the said amount when it’s attention was drawn to the discrepancy.

A Deputy Minister of Finance, John Kumah made this known in a Facebook post on Wednesday, August 31.

Mr. Kumah thus urged the Auditor-General to also comment on recoveries made in its final report.

“Kindly note that the funds paid were recovered when the attention of the Ministry was drawn to this anomaly. This is why I always insist that the Auditor-General’s report must also have update on recoveries being made.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister also stated the the supposed “ghost names” were personnel seconded from the Ghana Revenue Authority to the Ministry.

“The three Ghost names are personnel seconded from GRA, for whom there was some misunderstanding about which payroll they belonged to for the period of the secondment. The amounts paid have been recovered from the GRA as indicated and the Ministry will in due time share more details.”

The Auditor-General in its 2021 report on the Public Accounts of Ghana – Ministries, Departments and Other Agencies stated that some persons who are not staff of the Finance Ministry were paid salaries.

The three individuals; Allotey James, Nana Yaw Asiedu and Adam Habibu received a combined GH¢1,112,896.00 as salaries between January 2020 and December 2021.

According to the latest report, there were no traces of the trio’s personal files at the Ministry.

“Regulation 86 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378) states that a Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity shall ensure that only the names of personnel who are eligible to receive payment for work done are kept on the payment voucher and keep records of the nominal roll of the covered entity in a manner that ensures that the correct amount of emolument is paid.

“We noted that three persons were paid a total of GH¢1,112,895.96 as salaries for the period January 2020 to December 2021, but we could not trace their personal files and names on the nominal roll of the Ministry,” parts of the report read.