Tamale Teaching Hospital Pays Deceased Staff for 26 Months – PAC Raises Alarm

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has uncovered serious financial irregularities at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) after the latest Auditor-General’s report revealed the payment of unearned salaries amounting to GHS 1,449,000, including the salary of a deceased employee for 26 months.

Appearing before the Committee in Accra on Monday, September 29, the hospital’s Director of Administration, Dr. Emmanuel Sena Kwasi Donkor, admitted that only GHS 303,558.68 — roughly 21% of the total amount — has so far been recovered.

“We were able to recover some amounts. Before we got here, we had received letters from some banks stating that they had stopped transferring the funds to the government chest,” Dr. Donkor said, appealing for parliamentary intervention to ensure full recovery.

He explained that the hospital has submitted the list of implicated individuals to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), which has requested and received the relevant files for investigation and recovery.

Despite these measures, PAC members expressed outrage at the hospital’s weak internal controls.

Ranking Member Samuel Atta-Mills cited a particularly shocking case:

“Habib Napare – date of separation was 2022. This guy had died. Didn’t you go to the funeral? And you validated this dead person for 26 months? And now you are coming to tell Parliament to do what?” he asked sharply.

The Committee warned that lax payroll validation systems continue to drain the public purse and demanded greater accountability from hospital management to prevent future leakages.