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The Controller and Accountant General of Ghana Mr. Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, has stated that any public sector worker without a Ghana Card will risk losing his/her salary effective March 2024.
This follows the launch of a software solution that integrated the databases of the Mechanised Payroll System of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) and the National Identification Authority (NIA) for validation and verification of salaries of government workers.
The measure is to help eliminate ‘ghost names’ from the government payroll and ensure only legitimate government employees are paid. It will also ensure transparency, efficiency, and accountability in the utilization of public funds.
Vice President Bawumia launched the innovative system at the premises of the CAGD in Accra on Wednesday. The initiative was championed by the Office of the Vice President as part of the Government’s digitalization agenda, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, the CAGD, and the NIA.
The Vice President described the ceremony to unveil the System as historic and a major landmark event, noting that the government had been leveraging the soft infrastructure it implemented to even leapfrog advanced countries.
He believed that the System would help remove non-existent workers on the government payroll, popularly known as the ‘ghost names’ and curb corruption in payroll management.
He cited an instance at the National Service Secretariat in 2022 where 14,027 ‘ghost names’ were discovered on the payroll and expunged, thus saving the nation 120 million Ghana Cedis. The Vice President noted that since the NIA had the biometric data of every Ghanaian, it would enable the system to verify the biometric details of every recruit and check payroll fraud.
In his welcome remarks, Mr. Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, the Controller and Accountant-General, said the initiative would promote transparency, efficiency, and accountability of the government payroll system and ensure judicious use of public funds.
He, therefore, urged public sector workers and CAP 30 pensioners to acquire the Ghana Card to avoid any inconveniences.
Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, lauded the efforts of the staff of the CAGD and the NIA and believed the system would save the public purse and payroll irregularities. The Minister added that it would also save the government the resources it used in undertaking payroll audits. Madam Georgina Marku Tyson, the Oracle Payroll Functional Consultant for the CAGD, made a presentation on the use of the system and how innovative it would be to curb payroll fraud in the country.
The program was attended by staff of the CAGD, heads of the Office of the Local Government Service and the Civil Service as well as other government functionaries.
