The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) have saved Ghana a significant sum of GHC34,249,737.6 for the 2024 financial year.

The two bodies conserved this amount after scrutinizing the government payroll in the Northern Region, covering educational institutions under the Ghana Education Service and the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

The investigation was initiated after the OSP blocked some “ghost names” in January 2024, leading to the tracing of an amount of GHC2,854,144.80.

In Phase 1, Volume 1 of the investigative report by the OSP and CAGD released yesterday,  the OSP stated that the unearned salaries amount would have gone unnoticed if not for their collaborative investigation and evaluation.

“The blockade of the amount of GHC2,854,144.80 and the removal from Government Payroll of the corresponding deceased, retired, post vacators, the missing, and those whose whereabouts are unknown has saved the Republic an amount of GHC34,249,737.6 for the 2024 financial year,” it said.

“Future savings of that amount (in addition to future periodic upward pay adjustments) for every year that the unearned-salaries-amount would have remained undetected but for the joint investigation and assessment by the OSP and CAGD of Government Payroll in the Northern Region (covering educational institutions under Ghana Education Service and Tamale Teaching Hospital),” it added.

The OSP found that the payroll system in the Northern Region, encompassing educational institutions under GES and the Tamale Teaching Hospital, is managed by a surprising number of unauthorized and inactive validators.

It noted that the credentials of deceased and retired validators were being actively utilized in the validation process for the institutions in question.

The joint report observed that the payroll system in the Northern Region (covering educational institutions under Ghana Education Service and the Tamale Teaching Hospital) is attended to by an alarming number of unauthorised and inactive validators.

Most of the management units were found to be validating persons through the use of unauthorised and inactive validators’ credentials, it indicated.

“That is to say, the credentials of deceased and retired validators were being actively used in the validation process. Then again, transferred validators were purporting to engage in validation with their inactive previous credentials. It was also observed that transferred and released staff were being validated by their previous management units, creating the clear danger of unattested active or continuous engagement by the respective institutions,” the report said.

The OSP declared that they will continue by extending the investigation to the remaining 15 regions under Phase 1 of the exercise.

“The OSP and CAGD would proceed by extending the investigation to the remaining fifteen regions under Phase I of the exercise,” it added.