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The Controller and Accountant-General�s Department (CAGD) has denied media reports of anomalies on the government payroll and threatened legal action against the peddlers of that information. The Controller and Accountant-General, Ms Grace Adzroe, told journalists in Accra yesterday that the CAGD would seek advice from the Attorney-General on possible legal remedies against the peddlers of what she described as �serious factual inaccuracies�. They include Soft Tribe Ghana Limited, a local software company which the CAGD accuses of breaching contractual agreements with the department, and IMANI Ghana, a policy think tank. He said the department took exception to publishing confidential correspondence in the media, contrary to the confidential clause in the agreement between Soft Tribe and the CAGD, Ms Adzroe said at a news conference to correct the �serious factual inaccuracies� in the said publications. The CAGD had contracted Soft Tribe in 2008 to develop a back-up payroll system, referred to as IPPD 3, used to run the payrolls of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and pensioners on Microsoft Navision. Migration onto payrolls Ms Adzroe cited a publication by Soft Tribe and IMANI Ghana in the January 19, 2015 issue of the Ghanaian Chronicle headlined: Payroll Mafia Exposed. One of the allegations made in the publication was the failure of the CAGD to migrate the payrolls of subvented agencies onto the mechanised payroll at the department. Ms Adzroe said in 2007, the government decided to migrate the payrolls of subvented agencies onto the mechanised payroll managed by the CAGD. She said in line with the policy, the CAGD had, as of the end of December 2011, migrated 120 out of the 140 subvented agencies onto the mechanised payroll, including all polytechnics, which were migrated in 2011. She noted that in November 2012, the Minister of Finance directed the CAGD to migrate the remaining subvented organisations onto the IPPD 3, adding, �At the time the minister issued the instructions, agencies such as the polytechnics and the Forestry Commission, mentioned in the publication, had already been migrated in 2011.� She said other agencies referred to in the publication had not been migrated due to legal and policy issues raised by the agencies, which issues were being addressed. �To set the record straight, the payroll of the National Service Secretariat was migrated as far back as November 2010. The payroll of the National Service Secretariat does not include National Service personnel. However, following recent developments with the National Service personnel payroll, a decision has been taken to migrate National Service personnel onto the mechanised payroll at the CAGD, starting with the 2015/2016 batch of personnel,� she said. Payroll data Ms Adzroe said since the implementation of the IPPD 3 payroll system, there had been challenges with the payrolls of the GES and pensioners, which were being addressed. The challenges, she said, included the inability of the payroll system to produce salary payment vouchers for the GES, allow for change of name (maiden name), state reasons for termination of employment, questionable promotion and recruitment dates, wrong and zero bank account numbers and staff without SSF numbers. She said it was erroneous to attribute the challenges to the IPPD 2 payroll system, saying the GES itself had raised some issues concerning its payroll which ran on IPPD 3. She said the CAGD had requested Soft Tribe to address the issues raised by the GES, stressing, �The rationale for bringing these issues up is not to discredit the IPPD 3 system but acknowledge the fact that all systems are perfected as you implement them.� Ms Adzroe said the reason for asking Soft Tribe to relax some of the rules was to allow payments to be made while steps were being taken to correct the data. She outlined a number of measures being taken by the government to address the challenges in the payroll system, including the setting up of a Cabinet committee to review and address payroll challenges, the development and implementation of the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher System to allow heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to determine who to pay on a monthly basis and the implementation of the E-Payslip system that would enable employees to review their pay details and provide feedback electronically. Ghost names One issue that attracted attention at the news conference was the matter of �ghost� names on the government payroll and how the �ghosts� were being �exorcised�. Officials of the CAGD took turns to explain the issue and efforts by the department to address it. But beyond the measures to deal with the �ghosts�, the Deputy Controller and Accountant-General (Payroll), Mr Wisdom Messan, suggested that the matter bordered on the morality, honesty and integrity of Ghanaians.