The Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG), has rejected the Finance Ministry’s excuse for paying GH¢1.1 million as salaries to non-staff of the Ministry.

The Association sees no reason for the initial payment at all.

In a press release issued on Friday, September 9, and signed by its Executive Secretary, Isaac Bampoe Addo, Association said the decision is untenable.

According to them, persons on secondment are on the payrolls of their mother organisations.

“CLOGSAG finds the Minister’s excuse untenable since seconded staff from the GRA are already on the GRA payroll, thus there was no need to make an effort to pay them again outside the nominal roll of Ministry of Finance.”

The group in the statement also queried if the secondment was done with due process of law.

“Was their secondment approved by the Office of the Head of Civil, as required by the Civil Service Act?”they asked.

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.

However, the Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah responded.

In his response, he said the Ministry recovered the said amount when its attention was drawn to the discrepancy. 

“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 an update on recoveries being made.”

However, this explanation according to the CLOGSAG is untenable.