Six individuals have been convicted by the High Court in Tamale for their involvement in a payroll corruption scheme within the Ghana Education Service that resulted in wrongful salary payments to a former teacher.
The convictions were secured under a plea bargaining agreement initiated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), leading to full restitution and reparation of the stolen funds.
The convicted persons—school heads, payroll officers, and accountants—collaborated to illegally validate and reactivate salary payments for Tahidu Yakubu, a former teacher who had vacated his post in 2022 to take up a new appointment at MASLOC in the North-East Region.
Despite his resignation, Yakubu continued receiving salaries due to the deliberate actions of the co-conspirators.
Between August 2022 and January 2023, he was paid GH₵16,416.89 in net salary, although he had ceased working at Balogu Junior High School in Yendi.
Investigations by the OSP revealed a sustained scheme to manipulate salary validation systems. The fourth accused, former headmaster Mohammed Yusif Jay, unlawfully validated Yakubu’s status while the third accused, Schools Improvement Support Officer Sammy Suuk, verified those validations.
In January 2024, new efforts were made to retroactively reinstate Yakubu’s salary for an eight-month period, resulting in an additional GH₵47,064.34 paid to him.
According to the OSP’s investigation report, “the conduct of the accused persons resulted in the State paying out unearned gross salary of GH₵86,318.95 to the first accused.”
The Court, presided over by the High Court in Tamale, accepted the plea bargain on 30 April 2025 and ordered restitution and reparation totaling GH₵106,319.64. This sum has since been recovered in full.
As part of the plea bargain under Section 71 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959), the accused also agreed to provide information to assist in further prosecutions. The Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, confirmed in the report that these disclosures were made confidentially to both his office and the Court.
The convictions form part of a wider initiative to cleanse Ghana’s public payroll system. Launched jointly by the OSP and the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department in November 2023, the Government Payroll Administration investigation is currently in Phase I, targeting the Ghana Education Service and Ghana Health Service.
Further phases will examine payrolls across Ministries, Departments, Agencies, and Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies.
The OSP indicated that six other criminal trials are underway in Accra, Tamale, and Kumasi, with more prosecutions expected as the investigation deepens.
According to the Special Prosecutor, “these proceedings signal our renewed resolve to hold corrupt public officers accountable and recover every cedi lost to payroll fraud.”
