The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has directed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to refund an amount of GHC 29,458, which was wrongly paid to two teachers in the Jirapa Municipality of the Upper West Region.
According to the Committee, the teachers had been placed on payroll under irregular circumstances, leading to the wrongful disbursement of funds. The directive was issued after the Auditor-General’s 2022 report flagged the payments during its review of public sector accounts.
Chairman of the Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, stressed that the misuse of public funds, whether by error or negligence, would not be tolerated. “We are determined to ensure accountability. Every pesewa of the public purse must be accounted for,” he warned.
The Director-General and officials from the GES who appeared before PAC admitted the error and assured members that steps were being taken to recover the funds. They also pledged to tighten their internal audit systems to prevent similar cases in the future.
The Committee has given the GES a 30-day deadline to refund the full amount to government coffers. PAC further urged education authorities to strengthen collaboration with the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department to curb salary irregularities in the service.
The directive forms part of ongoing efforts to sanitize the payroll system in the public sector and to protect scarce national resources from mismanagement.
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