The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has launched an E-Travel Card to aid in curbing corruption in the public sector.
The Vice President says the move is aimed at controlling the travel expenditure of public sector workers, including government officials. He said this will ensure accountability.
Dr Bawumia noted that government is gradually introducing technologies aimed at fighting corruption within the public sector.
Speaking at the launch of the Electronic Travel Card at the 22nd annual delegates conference of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) in Cape Coast, he said; “The E-Travel Card is designed to facilitate the cashless disbursement of travel allowance and other payments for local and foreign trips by government and all other foreign officials.”
“The E-Travel Card system automates and integrates all the processes from the point of initiation of card issuance requests, funding requests from NDAs, and entities through approvals and disbursement of cards. It further provides expenditure tracking and retirements of accountable imprints.”
The Vice President has been on the trajectory of digitalising the Ghanaian economy, an initiative he believes would cure the country of corruption and bring more accountability.
Initiatives such as linking the Ghana Card to the SSNIT numbers, Ghana Card being the only mode of verification for all financial transactions, amongst others have so far been rolled out.
Through the digitalisation spree, the National Service Scheme (NSS) has been able to fish out some ghost names on their payroll who do not deserve to be paid, yet were getting paid.
This move of theirs has saved the country GH¢112 Million.
This was possible using the Metric app, which combines both facial recognition and identity cards for verification and validation.
He admonishes that all public institutions adopt the initiative to help reduce corruption and help in accountability.
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