Monrovia – The Internal Audit Agency (the IAA) has identified 750 names on the payroll of the Ministry of Health and the Government is expected to save about 1.7 million United States Dollars from the exercise.
IAA Director General Emmanuel Barthen Nyeswa said, the discovery of the ghost names follows a robust audit of the Health Ministry’s payroll, which affected every health facility throughout the country and about 2,495 purported health workers were neither seen nor accounted for by health authorities in the fifteen counties.
According to Mr. Nyeswa, the IAA and Health Ministry authorities have agreed to delete from the government’s payroll 750 of the 2,495 names unaccounted for, beginning this March, while the remaining I, 745 will be subjected to further probe and review to ensure their authenticity.
The audit report showed that the 750 ghost names cost the Liberian Government L$82,130,220(Eighty-Two Million, One Hundred Thirty Thousand, Two Hundred Twenty Liberian Dollars In Basic Salary and US$I,078,800 (One Million Seventy-Eight Thousand, Eight Hundred United States Dollars in general allowances annually.
The report also indicated that about 2.5m US Dollars of donor’s funding was being lost annually.
Addressing MIeAT’s regular weekly press briefing in Monrovia Friday, Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah lauded the work of the IAA and praised Director General Nyewsa for his leadership that resulted to the discovery and subsequent saving of 1.7 million United States dollars.
Minister Tweh said the money will be directed to other priority areas to facilitate the Government’s pro-poor agenda. He promised that additional resources will be provided to the IAA to conduct an audit of other ministries and agencies, including the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Education, Justice, among other, so as to save more monies that are being lost due to payroll