Taxi driver found on govt payroll with fake certificate

The Audit Service has discovered a taxi driver who used someone’s certificate to get himself on government payroll and has been drawing salaries for some time.

The Deputy Auditor General, Mr. George Winful made this revelation at a press conference in Cape Coast after he and management of Audit Service department stormed Cape Coast to monitor an ongoing enumeration exercise aimed at getting rid of 'ghost names'.

Mr Winful, therefore, used the opportunity of the monitoring to bring to the attention of the general public that apart from the enumeration, the audit service department is also interested in knowing the authenticity of the documents that have been presented before the audit service.

Mr. Winful encouraged heads of public institutions to be meticulous in their recruitment of employees into the public service to ensure a clean payroll.

He said the enumeration exercise was successful and expressed shock that some people used other people ’s certificate for employment.

This, he observed that “if this person finds himself in the hospital or classroom then possibly it could be the result of why we are creating poor result in our Secondary schools”.

Mr. Winful stated that it will be of interest to the general public that heads of institutions also show interest in their Human Resources requirements and begin to do what is necessary to ensure that school children are safe by getting right teachers in classroom.

He again called on public heads of institutions to also do some background checks especially of high-risk officers in their respective institutions.

Mr. Winful said his outfit has come across situations where some people are trying to take salaries in positions where they have not reached because they try to either falsify one thing or the other.

He bemoaned the situation where some government workers bring photocopy or email of appointment or promotion letters to the audit service instead of the original copy.

“This is public institutions and photocopies are some of high-risk issues that can compromise the quality of work we are doing” he added.

The Deputy Auditor-General believed ongoing enumeration exercise will create space for teaming youth who are marking time to join the public service in whichever capacity they want to be.

credit: Mynewsgh