– 4 Ghost Pensioners Stayed on payroll for seven years
By Philip Antoh
A damming report from the Auditor-General has revealed significant flaws in Ghana’s public pension system, indicating that the government continued to deposit millions of cedis into the accounts of deceased pensioners for several years.
The audit found that a total of GH¢7,494,975.34 was improperly disbursed to four deceased pensioners between February 2019 and March 2026.
These irregularities, outlined in the Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana for the year ending December 31, 2025, have raised new concerns regarding inadequate oversight and delayed responses from the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD).
The payments contravened Regulation 88 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019 (L.I. 2378), which mandates immediate verification to avert payments to deceased beneficiaries.
The Auditor-General has instructed the Controller and Accountant-General to recover the entire amount, along with interest calculated at the current Bank of Ghana lending rate, from the next-of-kin who may have accessed or benefited from these funds.
“Any recovered funds should be deposited into the Auditor-General’s Recoveries Account at the Bank of Ghana,” the report specified.
The Auditor-General cautioned that if the funds cannot be retrieved, legal proceedings should be initiated against both the banks involved and the next-of-kin.
This latest finding is part of a larger trend of payroll discrepancies identified during the 2025 audit, as the Auditor-General persists in efforts to mitigate financial leakages and enhance accountability in the management of public resources.
While Ghana struggle to look for scares resources to fund developmental projects, the flaws in the country’s pension system continue to expose public workers as ghost names and other payroll fraud continue to mar the good policies being implemented by sitting governments.
Until a radical policy change is adopted to ameliorate the issue of ghost names, the canker will continue to resurface year after year.