Auditor General orders Godfred Dame's ministry to recover GH¢170,123 unearned salary paid to former staff
The Auditor-General has cited the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General headed by Godfred Yeboah Dame for paying unearned salaries to two former staff.
This is contained in the latest Auditor General’s Report for the year ending December 2021.
In the report published on the website of the Ghana Audit Service, the Auditor General discloses that it uncovered that the Ministry paid Lily Badungbana Atutigah and Jocelyn Edzie a sum of GH¢170,123.20 although they had vacated their post in 2019.
“Regulation 92 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378) provides that, the Principal Spending Officer of a covered entity shall ensure the immediate stoppage of payment of salary to public servants and notify the Controller and Accountant-General in the following circumstances: the vacation of post by an employee and the resignation or retirement of an employee.
“We noted that two staff of the Ministry, Lily Badungbana Atutigah resigned on 17 January 2021, and Jocelyn Edzie who vacated post in September 2019, were paid a total unearned salary of GH¢170,123.20 for the period September 2019 to February 2021,” parts of the Auditor General’s Report has revealed.
In a recommendation, the Auditor General has directed the Chief Director of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General to recover the total amount of GH¢170,123.00 from Lily Badungbana Atutigah and Jocelyn Edzie.
“We recommended that the Chief Director should, failure of which the Chief Director and the validators should be held liable for refund of the amount,” the Auditor General adds.