PAC Chair pushes for sanctions, reforms to curb payroll fraud
Abena Osei Asare: Payroll Fraud Balloons 300% as Oversight Weakens
Elohim Nyame 
Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and former Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei Asare, has raised alarm over what she describes as an unacceptable resurgence of payroll fraud in Ghana’s public sector, calling for urgent reforms to strengthen accountability.
Speaking on The Pulse on JoyNews, Ms Osei Asare revealed that fraudulent payroll-related expenditures ballooned by 300 per cent in 2024, reversing gains made in 2023 when the figure was reduced to GH¢14 million.
She attributed the surge to excessive centralisation of payroll processes and weak accountability structures.
“If everything is done at the centre, which is the headquarters, you would have some of these challenges,” she warned. “We need to decentralise some of these processes and systems and let it be robust. Once we do that, we would see a drop.”
While acknowledging that irregularities are almost inevitable due to the size and complexity of the public payroll, Ms Osei Asare stressed that the magnitude of the 2024 losses was intolerable.
“It shouldn’t come to this level,” she said. “There are some lapses in the system that people must be held responsible for.”
She called for greater devolution of powers and responsibilities to regional and local levels, arguing that decentralisation, combined with stricter sanctions, would strengthen oversight and reduce opportunities for abuse.
“We should decentralise, and we should sanction those who, in one way or another, shirk their responsibilities and refuse to do the needful even though they have been asked to,” she insisted.
Her remarks add to growing public concern over systemic inefficiencies and leakages in the public payroll, which continues to consume a large share of government expenditure.
