The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) in Ghana has launched a national payroll monitoring program to promote equity and improve government payroll practices.
The exercise is being led by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) which will look for unjustified allowances, ghost names on the payroll, and problems with salaries. The FWSC CEO, Ing. Benjamin Arthur, stated that their duty included not only setting wages but also keeping an eye on the government’s payroll.
He emphasized that the exercise was not a joke but a serious one, and those who received emoluments they were not deserving of must refund. The main goals of the process are to ensure equity and that people receive what is due to them.
The Director-General of the IAA, Dr. Eric Oduro Osae, stated that the monitoring effort would support accountability and transparency in the payment of salaries to public sector employees.
He claimed that as the government budget’s payroll component became larger, it became necessary to clean it up. According to Dr. Osae, the FWSC’s monitoring is the only effective approach to cleaning it. He warned that those who stole from the government would face legal repercussions.
Dr. Osae pointed out that internal auditors were driving efforts to either eradicate or significantly reduce payroll fraud in the nation. “Again internal auditors are working with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and even as the FWSC monitor the payment of salaries, internal auditors will also do the payroll auditing bit to ensure that persistently we reduce payroll fraud and government’s compensation budget which is ballooning on the account of some of these irregularities,” he said.
The exercise will also check for names being left off, names being unknown, people using other people’s names and automobiles for car maintenance benefits, and persons with different birthdays.
Cases of different retirement ages have also occurred and have been marked off due to the use of the Ghana Card. The FWSC signed an MOU with the IAA last year to participate in conducting the monitoring, and the IAA is conducting its own internal monitoring and sharing the report with the FWSC.
The FWSC’s initiative to clean up the government payroll is a step toward promoting transparency and accountability in the public sector. It is important to ensure that employees receive what is due to them and that the government’s compensation budget is not ballooning on the account of irregularities.
The involvement of internal auditors in the process will ensure that payroll fraud is eradicated or significantly reduced in the nation. The exercise will also serve as a warning to those who steal from the government that they will face legal repercussions.