Ghana trims 34,000 ghosts from pension payroll

34,000 ghost names removed from pensioners' payroll (Modern Ghana)

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Minister of MoFEP, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, stated that the initiative would contribute significantly to minimising payroll fraud and facilitate the cutting down substantially of public expenditure on emoluments.

The government projects to spend close to GH¢6 billion on the wage bill of public sector employees and pensioners in 2012.

But the minister was optimistic that by the time the entire project was completed in June, the nation would have saved close to GH¢1.5 billion.

The project, so far, has processed 54,544 out of the 88,467 pensioners it covers. If one assumes ghosts tend to stand toward the back of the enrollment line, the percentage of ghost pensioners will increase from its current 38%.