Government is to conduct a verification exercise from June 16 to August 16, to confirm or disprove the existence of ghost names identified on its payroll during the head count exercise conducted in the Public Education Sector (PES) last year.
A statement issued by the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) and copied to Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday said "already, government has suspended the salaries of staff classified as "Potential Ghost" and is currently examining the case of affected staff with genuine concerns for possible re-instatement".
It said the current exercise involved conducting a verification test on all the 11,360 staff of PES classified as "Verifiable Potential Ghosts" and another 3,522 staff classified as "Not Stated" making a total of 14,882 staff to be verified.
The statement said MOFEP, in conjunction with Ghana Statistical Service, Controller and Accountant General's Department, Ghana Audit
Service, and Office of Head of Civil Service, organised the headcount of all staff in PES in 2009, and the main findings of the headcount which covered 282,889 staff were as follows:
Firstly, of the total 282,889 staff enumerated, 13,744 (or five per cent) were classified as "Not at Post", 265,643 (or 94 per cent) as "At Post" and a further 3,522 (or one per cent) as "Not Stated".
Secondly, Of the 13,744 staff classified as "Not at Post", 2,384 (17 per cent) were classified as "Potential Ghosts", and the remaining 11,360 (83 per cent) classified as "Verifiable Potential Ghosts".
"Potential Ghosts" are those considered to be "ghost" workers before verification test are conducted, whilst "Verification Potential Ghosts" are those who would be declared "ghosts" contingent on the outcome of verification test.
Thirdly, of the 2,384 "Potential Ghosts", 1,717 (or 72 per cent) drew their salaries from the Mechanized Payroll (IPPD/Subvention) with the
remaining 667 (or 28 per cent) drawing salaries from other sources of payment such as Internally Generated Fund, National Youth Employment
Programme and District Assemblies.
The statement said with the impending exercise, Regional and District Directors of Education were required to inform all facility or institution heads to ensure that all PES workers who were "Not at Post" during the census period and were classified as "Verifiable Potential Ghost" or "Not Stated" availed themselves for the impending verification exercise.
It said lists of the 11,360 "Verifiable Potential Ghost Staff" and the 3,522 "Not Stated Staff" as well as the necessary forms would be made available to the Regional and District Offices of Ghana Education Services to be accessed by affected staff.
The statement said after accessing the verification forms and other materials on the verification exercise from the Regional and District Offices, each affected staff was expected to complete the verification forms
and provide some documentation to their respective District Directors of Education for onward submission to the Regional Verification Team at the Office of the Regional Director of Education.
The documentation are; a copy of first appointment letter to the service (a conversion letter should be provided where applicable); the
latest promotion letter, if applicable; a copy of the latest pay slip; a note certified by the respective facility manager about the existence of the staff.
Others are; a proof of the reason assigned for not being at post during the census; a valid Identity Card (Voter ID, Passport, Driving Licence); and any other relevant documentation.
The statement noted that affected staff who failed to take advantage of the verification exercise would be considered as "Potential Ghosts" and would suffer an immediate salary suspension, and all other related sanctions.
It said facility and institution heads who connived with affected staff to provide false documentation would be sanctioned.