Teachers at the University of Ghana (UG) have called for the resignation of Auditor-General Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu following a recent audit report that implicated the university in alleged financial irregularities.
At a press conference on Tuesday, May 20, Dr. Jerry Joe Harrison, Secretary of the University of Ghana Chapter of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG-UG), criticized the Auditor-General for a payroll audit report which claimed that UG overstated employee compensation by GH¢59.2 million.
Dr. Harrison faulted the Auditor-General for failing to share the initial audit findings with the university for clarification before making the report public.
“This is a serious breach of the ethical standards required for this profession. For such a basic ethical ethos to be ignored clearly smacks of incompetence and/or mischief,” he said. He added, “We therefore call for the Auditor-General to resign honourably, or we will petition the President for his removal.”
He also demanded sanctions against all individuals involved in the audit process for what he described as professional misconduct.
“We want to state that the situation where auditing is used as a tool to disallow payments of legitimate claims from subvented institutions must stop immediately,” Dr. Harrison added.
The Auditor-General’s report indicated that between 2022 and 2024, the University of Ghana submitted salary claims totaling GH¢1.09 billion, but only GH¢1.03 billion was approved after verification, revealing GH¢59.24 million in alleged overstatements.
The report formed part of a broader financial review based on recommendations from Auditor-General reports spanning 2020 to 2023, covering disallowances and payroll savings up to December 31, 2024.
In response, UG’s Acting Deputy Internal Auditor, Prof. Samuel Simpson, dismissed the claims as misleading and lacking context.
He told MyJoyOnline, “The numbers alone don’t tell the full story. There are processes and engagements behind these figures that the Auditor-General’s report fails to capture.”
Prof. Simpson explained that the alleged “overstatements” were actually legitimate payments made from the university’s internally generated funds (IGF) to supplement government payroll allocations.
“For example, if the government pays for two staff, but the university needs five staff to maintain quality education, the university uses its own funds to pay for the additional three,” he said.
Prof. Simpson emphasized, “This is not savings or fraud. The university transparently documents these expenditures to ensure quality service delivery.”
He reiterated that all expenditures were properly recorded and denied any involvement in payroll fraud as suggested by the Auditor-General’s report.
“The processes and engagements throughout this have been thorough. There is no way the university engaged in payroll fraud as alleged,” Prof. Simpson concluded.
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