Worrying disparities in personnel records were discovered during an audit at the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), where 84 employees were listed as unknown on the payroll, and 23 employees were reported missing.
Frank Amoakohene, the Ashanti Regional Minister, explained the irregularities by blaming them on staff transfers and administrative hold-ups during his appearance before Parliament’s Local Government Committee.
He clarified that there may be gaps in the validation between the two organisations when police are posted to new stations because their identities occasionally end up in the records of their previous units.
However, Dr Amoakohene rejected claims that these anomalies point to the presence of ghost names or cases of multiple salaries.
“Before you are paid your salary, we have to validate you to make sure that you belong to the entity where your name reflects and where you are serving,” he explained.
“So if you are declared missing, it means that your name is not found in the entity. However, you are working there. The negative is that you don’t get paid.
“If you are declared unknown, it means your name is on the PV and you are expected to receive salary. But because you are not validated, owing to the fact that you don’t work there any longer, your salary will still not come unless you are validated at your new station.”
He gave the committee his word that steps are being taken to strengthen staff validation procedures and guarantee a more dependable payroll system throughout the area.
Due to inadequate handovers from the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy, and Religious Affairs, the regional minister also revealed that a number of RCC vehicles were operating without official roadworthy and insurance certificates.
According to him, the problem was discovered following an audit question, which prompted prompt action to regularise the impacted vehicles and obtain the missing documents from the ministry.
“Definitely, we cannot be driving with vehicles without these certificates,” Dr Amoakohene said.
“The challenge we are confronted was the fact that that the cars were handed over to us by the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs. Unfortunately, when the handing over was being done, the accompanying car documents did not get to the RCC.
“So it was difficult to get to the DVLA, and we get them to renew their roadworthy certificates and insurance accordingly. Following the audit query and initial intervention of the RCC, letters have been sent to the Ministry. We are still hoping to get the documents from the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs. While that is done, we should be able to avoid some of these audit queries.
Source:Lovinghananews.com
