The perception that the Government of Ghana payroll, being managed by the Controller and Accountant Generals’ Department is fraught with fraud, has now become a reality, following a disclosure by KPMG, an internationally acclaimed accounting firm, that workers as old as one hundred years are on the payroll.
Apart from this, there are hundreds of workers who below 18 years, yet drawing salaries on a monthly basis from government chest.
“There are 2,436 established staff employers, with inappropriate dates of birth, and payments are currently getting processed to all these employees. There are 332 employees between the ages of 60-100 (excluding Judiciary staff and pensioners), and 819 employees above the age of 100. Some of the employees have 1st January 1930 as their default date of birth.
“Payments are currently processed for all the above category of employees. No reports or alerts (are) available in the system that currently provides information on employees above retirement age. Processing payments to employees post their scheduled retirement ages is a major risk and has a severe cost impact. Employees actual dates of birth need to be captured in the system and defaults should not be accepted in IPPD2.
“The process of terminating employees, who have attained the retirement age, and the lack of controls in the system to stop payments to employees above (that) age, is currently leading to incorrect payment of salaries. This issue can have (a) very serious cost impact and loss of revenue, as there are no reports/alerts in the system to detect employees above (the) retirement age and continue to get paid for indefinite periods,” KPMG noted.
Investigations conducted into the integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD2) for the Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD) by KPMG at the instance of the Controller General, of which a report was issued in November 2012, indicated that there are instances of salaries being processed for employees on leave without pay, and unauthorized leave.
“The IPPD2 processes double payments when employees move from (the old salary to the new one. The new salary element gets attached to the employee while the old does not terminate in the IPPD2. This is primarily due to the existing manual process of terminating the old salary structure and assigning the new structures to employees.
“This current practice must be stopped and the old salary structure elements be terminated in the system automatically when an employee moves from the old structure to a new structure. Added controls should be incorporated within IPPD2 to validate or check the salary structure the employee is on, prior to calculating the monthly salary,’ KPMG recommended.
KPMG conducted a review of the integrated Payroll and Personnel Database IPPD2) of the CAGD – an Oracle Human Resource Management to manage the payroll and personnel information for both active and retired Government of Ghana (GoG) employees.
The overall objective of the engagement was to determine whether adequate procedures and controls exist over input, processing and output of date. The payroll review, according to the accounting giants, was conducted in accordance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing. The engagement was carried out over a period of three months by KPMG professionals.
According to the report, which had long been submitted to the appropriate authorities, the integrated personnel and payroll Database (IPPD2) system is a centralized computer based system intended to manage payroll and personnel information for both active and retired GoG employees.
The wage bill of government employees constitutes a significant percentage of total GoG expenditure, and, therefore, requires robust control systems to prevent and detect the occurrence of error and irregularities that may be associated with the payroll system.
“As the centralized system for the administration and processing of payroll for civil servants, (the) IPPD2 is seen as an essential tool for managing both public sector finances and personnel deployment. The integrity and effectiveness of the system and its processes are, therefore, key to achieving accountable and sound financial management.
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