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Over 700 staff including nurses and doctors of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, will not be paid their salaries for the month of February. The error has been blamed on some lapses at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department. 

A software at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department used in the validation and processing of salaries, has reportedly been faulty since June last year. 

In an interview with Citi News, the Medical Director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr. Pinaman Appau, recounted the events that led to the non-payment of salaries for February, but assured that the staff of the hospital would be paid their salary in March.

“We have been told that we will not receive our salaries for the month of February, but in March, we would get a double salary, that is, the February and March salaries.”

Problem with payroll validation

According to her, the staff in charge of validation of the payroll have not been able to validate the payroll due to a software problem that has persisted since June last year.

“This came about because of the validation process which happens before the authorization by the medical director before salaries are paid,” Dr. Appau explained.

Dr. Appau noted that the hospital management had reported the problem to the Controller and they were in turn informed that there was indeed a challenge with the system.

The hospital since June last year, has been notifying the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to validate their payroll every month, but the department failed to do so this month.

“Unfortunately, they explained that since we couldn’t do the validation, we should have reported to them and since we didn’t report this time, we didn’t get our salaries. Unfortunately, they are saying that they cannot run a supplementary payroll and therefore what they can do is to give us our salaries in March.”

Dr. Appau however indicated that they will be taking steps to make sure the situation does not recur.

In the meantime, Dr. Appau told Citi News that authorities of the hospital have proposed measures for their staff, to mitigate the looming hardship as a result of the development.