Over 22,000 names removed from the government payroll have been re-entered.

The names were part of more than 26,000 names which the finance minister ordered to be removed from the payroll for failing to register on the new SSNIT biometric system.

Ken Ofori-Atta earlier this year ordered the removal of 26,589 names of public workers from the government’s payroll for failure to register on the new SSNIT biometric system despite several directives to do so.

The move according to him, was aimed at protecting the public purse by plugging leakages in the system.

The directive which came into effect in April 2017 treated as “ghosts” had their salaries suspended indefinitely until their SSNIT re-registration is complete.

But speaking to Starr Business Wednesday, a deputy Finance Minister Abena Osei Asare disclosed that over 22,000 names out of the 26,589 deleted names have been restored onto the government’s payroll with some 3,000 yet to migrate onto the new system.

“Currently, as we speak we have been able to restore a little over 22000 names onto the SSNIT biometric system…and so they have been reinstated onto the payroll and they are receiving their salaries,” she stated.