‘Ghosts’ taking salaries from government without working – EOCO official

Many people are on government payroll and receiving monthly salaries for no work done, according to Patrick Senyo Amegago, an official with the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) in the Upper East Region. He explains that these individuals collude with agents to get their names on the payroll and receive salaries for no work done.

He went on to say that while some of these people who were defrauding the state had already been prosecuted, others were still being investigated.

“You have people who are not working as state employees but find themselves through crooked ways and enter the Government of Ghana payroll. They have their agents wherever they are. So people are on the Government of Ghana payroll who are not working. We have several of them in court being prosecuted,” he revealed in an interview with Bolgatanga-based Dreamz FM.

He pointed out that although EOCO’s first goal is to convince these people to return the money to the government after being arrested, they also pursue legal action against them.

“Over the years, we have been focused on recovering stolen monies back to the state. That doesn’t mean that if we take the money from you, you are going scot-free.

“We have recovered a lot for the state and these people are facing prosecution,” he stressed.

Ghost identities, or people on the government payroll, have always been a problem for the government since efforts to remove their names off the payroll have not always been successful.