THE IMPACT OF E-SALARY PAYMENT VOUCHER AND PAYROLL AUDITS IN ELIMINATING UNDESERVED COMPENSATIONS IN THE MANAGEMENT UNITS OF GHANA EDUCATION SERVICE

Abstract

This study was born with the purpose of Assessing the Impact of the E-Salary Payment Voucher system and Payroll Headcounts/Audits in the elimination of Unauthorized Compensations in the two Kasena-Nankana Districts of Upper East Region. Research questions for the study focused on the relationship between the opportunities for undeserved compensations which is the dependent variable and the independent variables include; payroll audits and the Electronic-Salary Payment Voucher system. This study employed the fraud triangle theory as the basis for its experiment. The study also utilized the non-probability quota sampling method to select 102 users of the E-SPV system for a cross sectional survey in Ghana Education Service. The results of the study show that there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between the opportunities for undeserved compensations and both payroll audits and Electronic Salary Payment Voucher system. However, the study revealed a direct relationship between undeserved compensations and both size of management units and rank of staff in Ghana Education Service. Significant findings of the study include, validators or users of the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher system are partly mandated to protect the public purse and hence the power to allow the prevalence of undeserved compensations is also in their hands. Recommendations from this study seek to suggest that there should be a proper authorization procedure for the users of the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher system and that there should be strict monitoring to ensure adherence to the procedures given. Another major recommendation is that there should be an annual system audit of the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher at various management units to ensure that it reflects a true and fair view of the compensations given to staff at various cost centers in Ghana Education Service.