Minister worried about “ghost” names phenomenon

The Central Regional Minister, Mrs. Ama Benyiwa-Doe, has expressed worry about leakages of financial resources through the phenomenon of “ghost” names on the country’s payroll system.

She stressed that “ghost” names served as threat to the nation’s resources as well as the wellbeing of pensioners and Ghanaians in general.

Mrs. Benyiwa-Doe said these in a speech read on her behalf at the launch of the Biometric Registration for Government of Ghana Pensioners, in Cape Coast on Thursday.

The event, which coincided with a day’s sensitization workshop, organized by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department for pensioners, was to solicit the cooperation of participants to “clean the pensioners payroll database’’ through the Biometric registration for Government of Ghana Pensioners under CAP 30.

The national exercise had already taken place in the Eastern and Volta Regions and it would be carried out in the various districts of the Central Region from Tuesday, August 16 to Friday, August 26.

Mrs. Benyiwa-Doe said accurate and reliable data was important for national planning and development.

The Regional Minister lauded efforts by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department in providing reliable data, which led to the recovery of huge sums of monies that were paid into state coffers.

She expressed dismay over various strategies being adopted by perpetrators to entrench their activities, and called on stakeholders to intensify efforts to clean pensioners’ payroll database.

Mr. Kwasi Owusu, the Director of Administration at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, warned that pensioners who failed to register within the given period will risk having their names removed from the payroll.

He advised relations of bed-ridden or invalid pensioners to either assist them by bringing them to the centers for the registration or submit the needed information earlier before the day of registration so that the team would register them at their homes.

Mr Owusu, who is also Chairman of the implementation committee tasked to clean the payroll, advised pensioners against double registration or impersonation.

Source: GNA