By: Barbara Kumah
Six individuals have been convicted by the High Court in Tamale for their roles in a payroll corruption scheme involving ghost names and fraudulent salary payments within the Ghana Education Service. The convictions followed guilty pleas entered under the OSP‘s plea bargaining framework, leading to full restitution and reparation to the State.
The convicted persons include school administrators, payroll officers, and accountants who facilitated the illegal validation and reactivation of salaries for a teacher who had vacated his post.
Their actions led to the wrongful payment of over GHS 86,000, all of which has now been recovered-bringing the total amount retrieved to GHS 106,319.64.
In a post on on social media platform X, in February the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) in stated that case arose from a referral by National Security, which alleged that the first accused, Yakubu Tahidu, a former teacher, although no longer teaching, continued to draw salaries while employed at another government agency.
The remaining accused are alleged to have knowingly facilitated or failed to prevent the fraudulent payments to the first accused. A brief fact as given by the OSP is that, Yakubu Tahidu, who formerly worked as a teacher at Balogu M/A JHS, is accused of illegally receiving salaries after vacating his post to join the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC).
Abdulai Abukari Sadic, the Yendi Municipal IPPD Coordinator, and Sammy Suuk, a Schools Improvement Support Officer, are accused of facilitating salary validations for Mr. Tahidu. Mohammed Yusif Jay, the former headteacher of Balogu M/A JHS, allegedly validated the salaries despite being reassigned to another school.
Stafford Korletey Azudey-Barres, an Assistant Chief Accounts Technician at the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, is alleged to have aided the processing of fraudulent payments.
Osman Issahaku, the current headteacher of Balogu M/A JHS, is also accused of continuing to validate the irregular payments.
The OSP says it is also pursuing several other suspects as part of a broader, ongoing investigation.
The OSP currently has six other criminal trials ongoing in Accra, Tamale, and Kumasi as it intensifies efforts to charge more individuals under investigation and safeguard public funds.
