No SSNIT Numbers, No Pay Public Service Workers

Public Service workers who do not have Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) numbers on their pay-slips will soon have their salaries withheld. This is the warning issued by the Controller and Accountant General�s Department, as part of measures to rid Government�s payroll of ghost names. With effect from April 2015, valid SSNIT numbers will be mandatory for workers on the mechanised payroll to access their salaries. Head of Payroll, George Kofi Baah informed JoyNews, �a series of interventions are being rolled out by the Controller and Accountant General�s Department�. One of the interventions, he said, is to �use the social security number as one of the mandatory checks in the payroll system�. Workers would have up to �March this year to update their records with the department�, after which all those without assigned SSNIT numbers will have their salaries withheld. This, according to Mr Baah, would help curb the incidence of ghost names on the payroll. Government has been battling a ballooning wage bill. An estimated 650,000 ghost names on the public payroll are suspected to have robbed the state of much-needed funding but were cleared up in December last year.