The High Court in Tamale has convicted six individuals for their roles in a payroll fraud scheme within the Ghana Education Service (GES), which led to the wrongful payment of salaries to a former teacher.
The convictions followed a plea bargaining agreement initiated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), resulting in the full recovery of the misappropriated funds.
Those convicted—comprising school heads, payroll officers, and accountants—were found to have collaborated in unlawfully reactivating and validating salary payments for Tahidu Yakubu, a former teacher who had vacated his post at Balogu Junior High School in Yendi in 2022 after accepting a new position with MASLOC in the North-East Region.
Despite leaving the classroom, Yakubu continued to receive salaries from August 2022 to January 2023, pocketing GH₵16,416.89 in net earnings. Investigations by the OSP revealed that this was made possible through deliberate manipulation of salary validation systems by his accomplices.
Among them was former headmaster Mohammed Yusif Jay, who unlawfully validated Yakubu’s salary status. These validations were in turn verified by Schools Improvement Support Officer Sammy Suuk. In January 2024, further attempts were made to retroactively reinstate Yakubu's salary for an additional eight-month period, resulting in a further payment of GH₵47,064.34.
According to the OSP’s report, “the conduct of the accused persons resulted in the State paying out unearned gross salary of GH₵86,318.95 to the first accused.” On 30 April 2025, the High Court accepted the plea bargain and ordered the convicted individuals to make restitution and pay reparations amounting to GH₵106,319.64—an amount that has since been fully recovered.
In line with Section 71 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959), the plea deal also required the convicted individuals to provide confidential information to support further prosecutions. The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, confirmed that these disclosures had been made both to the OSP and the Court.
This case is one of several under the Government Payroll Administration investigation—a broader initiative launched in November 2023 by the OSP and the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department to eliminate payroll corruption. The first phase of the initiative focuses on the Ghana Education Service and the Ghana Health Service, with later phases set to examine payrolls in Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and local government institutions.
Currently, six additional criminal trials related to payroll fraud are ongoing in Accra, Tamale, and Kumasi. The Special Prosecutor stated, “these proceedings signal our renewed resolve to hold corrupt public officers accountable and recover every cedi lost to payroll fraud.”
The OSP continues to urge public sector institutions to cooperate fully as the investigation expands across Ghana’s public payroll system.
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