CONTROLLER OFFICIAL CHOPS GHC102,207??

The Commercial Crime Unit (CCU) of the Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana
Police Service has apprehended 56-year-old
Gilbert Kwasi Mensah Addison, an accounts
officer at the Controller and Accountant-
General’s Department, together with three
others, for allegedly embezzling an amount of
Ghc102, 207.00 belonging to the Nursing and
Midwifery Council (NmC).
The others include Daniel Ninson 28, a rubber
stamp maker at Takoradi; Albert Nantomah, 58,
head of finance, Nursing and Midwifery Council,
Accra and John Donnals, 39, assistant internal
auditor NMC.
The four are currently assisting the police to
investigate the matter.
Briefing the DAILY GUIDE, Superintendent Felix
Mawusi, Director in charge of the CCU, said the
theft was detected on November 13, 2014 by the
Registrar of the Council and consequently
reported the matter to the police.
According to him, a theft of Ghc102,207.00 was
detected at the Western Regional office of the
council at Takoradi.
This, the paper was told, occurred from October
1, 2013 to October 31, 2014.
Gilbert Addison – who was seconded to the
Western Regional branch of the Council - upon
interrogations, allegedly said he used the
money to pay his personal debts and intended
to pay back.
Police further disclosed that Addison used his
position to embezzle the money, but failed to
pay back into the council’s account at the
Takoradi branch of the Bank of Ghana.
“Investigations are still ongoing,” Supt. Mawusi
added.
In recent times, government payroll is said to be
fraught with ghost names, thereby raising the
public sector wage bill.
A 2012 final audit report by an international
audit agency on government’s payroll system
revealed that there were 3,288 potential
duplicate employees that had been identified as
having identical first and last names, national
identifier, date of birth and joining date.
The agency recommended that as a matter of
urgency, duplicate checks on employee first
name, last name, date of birth and other key
parameters, if applicable, should be introduced
into the payroll system, adding that data
entered during hire should be validated and
rejected/notified in case of potential
duplicates.
However, deputy finance minister, Mona
Quartey, says public sector wage bill has
dropped from 70% of government revenue to
57% after a rigorous process to remove ‘ghost
names’ or non-existing bank accounts from
government payroll.