Additionally the service saved the state a total of GH¢145, 087,183.56 from the special payroll verifications audit of September 30, 2022.

This was contained in a special audit report on the recoveries made from disallowed expenditure from 2017 to 2020 and payroll savings as of September 30, 2022 submit­ted to parliament by the Auditor General.

The report said to track audit recovery in real time, the Auditor- General had opened a recovery account at the Bank of Ghana.

It noted that as of Septem­ber 30, 2022 a total of GH¢ 1,282,733.90 had been recovered into the account.

The Auditor-General noted that evidence available suggested that its legal unit in the past submitted 14 surcharge cases to the court but somehow lost all those cases.

“A careful analysis of the out­comes revealed that, the evidence we gathered to support the disal­lowance and surcharge certificates were not admissible by the courts.

Accordingly, I have put in place appropriate systems to ensure availability of sufficient evidence that are admissible by the courts before surcharge certificates are issued,” he said.

However the situation has changed since a surcharge cer­tificate with a face value GH¢ 1,560,126.35 issued in recent times could not be challenged, stress­ing that the case has since been forwarded to the Attorney-General for further actions.

The Auditor General explained that the work and continued support of the Public Account Committee (PAC) significantly contributed to the recovery of the over GH¢ 2.2 billion.

A further breakdown of the report revealed that an amount of GH¢1,644,559,985.88 was recov­ered in respect of tax irregularities representing 74.39 per cent of the total recoveries in the 2017-2020 Auditor-General’s Reports.

This was mainly from taxes owed which have now been recovered from defaulters.

In the area of cash irregulari­ties, the report said an amount of GH¢131,136,005.82 were recov­ered for the period under review, representing 5.93 per cent of the total recoveries made.

“A total amount of GH¢421,468,216.34 representing 19.06 per cent of total recoveries was made in respect of loans, advances, and indebtedness. This included indebtedness of GH¢327,639,662.28 to COCO­BOD, now recovered,” it said.

On unearned salaries, also known as Payroll recoveries, an amount of GH¢3,212,813.31 representing 0.15 per cent of total recoveries.

A total of GH¢8,954,711.39 was recovered in respect of rent irreg­ularities and this represented 0.40 per cent of total recoveries.

An amount of GH¢1,468,222.39 was recovered in respect of con­tract irregularities representing 0.07 per cent of total recoveries.

BY CLIFF EKUFUL & KEZIA ACHIAMPONG