The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) in conjunction with other stakeholders, has organised a headcount of all staff in the Public Education Sector to weed out "ghost names".
The other stakeholders in the exercise are the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD), the Audit Service and the Office of the Head of Civil Service (OHCS).
A statement in Accra from the Ministry copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said the census covered some 282,889 staff, out of which 265,643 (94 per cent) were at post.
A total of 13,724 (five per cent) were classified as "not at post", and 3,522 (one per cent) as "not stated".
The statement said of the 13,724 staff classified as "not at post", 2,383 (17 per cent) were classified as "potential ghosts" and the remaining 11,341 (83 per cent) classified as "verifiable potential ghosts".
The "potential ghosts" are those considered to be "ghost" workers before verification tests are conducted, whilst "verifiable potential ghost" are those who will be declared "ghosts" on the outcome of a verification test.
The statement said of the 2,383 potential ghosts, 1,716 (72 per cent) drew their salaries from the Mechanised Payroll (IPPD/Subvention) with the remaining 667 (28 per cent) drawing salaries from other sources of payment such as the Internally Generated Fund (IGF), National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), and the District Assemblies (DAs).
"The government has decided to suspend salary payments to all "not at post" staff classified as "potential ghosts", with immediate effect, until there is enough evidence for their reinstatement", the statement declared.
Staff whose salaries are temporarily suspended are requested to prove their existence for a possible reinstatement, the it said, adding it should be noted that facility managers of the institutions enumerated provided the list of staff who were not at post during the headcount and the reasons for not being at post.
It asked affected staff who had genuine reasons to warrant reinstatement of their names on the payroll to provide documentation on or before the end of June, 2010 to the "Verification Committee" through the Office of the Director, Economic Planning Division, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for verification.
The documents are a copy of first appointment letter to the service (a conversion letter should be provided, where applicable); 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; a proof of the reasons assigned for not being at post during the census; valid ID card (e.g. Voter's ID, Passport, Driving License); and any other relevant document.
The statement said the affected persons will be considered "ghosts" and their names deleted from the payroll permanently if no response was received by the deadline date, adding the Auditor General had been requested to initiate investigations into how the 2,383 "potential ghost" staff got onto the payroll and recommend appropriate sanctions to be meted out to any culprits.
It said facility managers who connive with illegitimate staff to provide false documentation will face the full rigours of the law.