The Finance Ministry’s ghost who worked with the Senior Minister

The Auditor General’s report for 2021 captured three persons as having received in excess of GHC1.1 million as salaries on the books of the ministry of finance while their records as employees of the ministry could not be traced.

In Ghana’s accountability history, this recurrent event by its notoriety has gained fame and is referred to as ghost names syndrome.

The questions that have succeeded the Auditor General’s recent discovery include who the three supposed ghosts are, and this specific question has been answered by a Deputy Minister for Finance, John Ampontuah Kumah.

“The three Ghost names are personnel seconded from GRA, for whom there was some misunderstanding about which payroll they belonged to for the period of the secondment. The amounts paid have been recovered from the GRA as indicated and the ministry will in due time share more details,” the deputy minister shared in a Facebook post.

In his bid to bring clarity on the matter and settle the public uneasiness that has characterised the discovery, the minister further disclosed that the state has since recovered the amount.

“Kindly note that the funds paid were recovered when the attention of the Ministry was drawn to this anomaly,” he stated.

However, despite the deputy minister’s disclosure, there is now more questions that beg answers than ever.

This is on the back of one of the named ‘ghosts’, Adam Habibu owning up for the situation which he describes as regular in the country’s payroll recording system.

“It is no news that Ghana has challenges with our records and documentation. Most people will remember how judgement debts were paid purely because of bad record keeping and documentation. In this instance, l was never contacted neither was my attention drawn to any audit report. I do hope it was an oversight that can be resolved,” he wrote in a Facebook post.

With the knowledge of the deputy minister’s statement that the 3 persons involved in the matter were personnel seconded from the Ghana Revenue Authority, GhanaWeb sought to search into Adam Habibu’s background.

It was discovered that Mr Adam is a political animal with strong ties to the governing New Patriotic Party.

A campaign poster sighted by GhanaWeb shows that Mr Adam was a parliamentary candidate hopeful of the New Patriotic Party for the Tamale North Constituency in 2020.

His ties with the NPP and the current government is seen in various Facebook post he has shared over the period.

Between 2017 and 2022, Mr Adam has also been seen to present himself as a staff in the office of Nana Yaw Osafo Maafo who served as Senior Minister in President Akufo-Addo’s first term government and is currently the Senior Presidential Advisor appointed in the president’s second term.

The title of Senior Economist in the office of the Senior Minister is carried by Mr Adam in an opinion article he published on newsghana.com on December 8, 2021, with the title “The 2022 Budget Brouhaha In Parliament. Is It Pure Politics Or National Interest?”

Weighing this discovery against the disclosure by the deputy minister for finance that the ‘3 ghosts’ were actually staff of the Ghana Revenue Authority, GhanaWeb begs to ask that:

Was Adam Habibu a staff of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)?

At what point was he appointed a GRA staff?

Was he still a staff at the office of the Senior Presidential Advisor at the time he was seconded from GRA to the Ministry of Finance?

Is it possible for one person to serve in two government institutions such as GRA and the Office of the Senior Presidential Advisor simultaneously?

In such an instance, which institution pays his salary?

Was Adam Habibu drawing salary from more than one agency?

Read the full report below: