Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), believes that digitisation is the key to eliminating corruption in Ghana, citing the Ghana card’s considerable impact on public sector payrolls.
According to him, the Ghana card has provided a unique identification for 18 million adult Ghanaians, allowing the detection and removal of ghost workers and pensioners while also resulting in significant savings for the country.
During a media appearance on Sunday, August 25, 2024, Dr. Bawumia expressed confidence in the usefulness of digitalisation in combating corruption, noting that it has helped address long-standing problems.
SSNIT identified and eliminated 29,000 phantom pensioners, saving GH¢400 million, while the National Service Secretariat detected 44,000 ghost service workers, saving over GH¢350 million.
The NPP flagbearer stated that digitalisation has permitted the elimination of all ghost staff on the Controller and Accountant General’s payroll, representing a huge step forward in the battle against corruption
“Digitalisation holds the key to dealing with corruption. When I look at the impact of the Ghana card on the public sector payroll, it gives me a lot of confidence that we are on the right path to deal with corruption ex-anti. The Ghana card provides a unique identity that by fingerprint for every adult Ghanaian so far, we’ve issued 18 million Ghana cards so far.”
“When we look at SSNIT for example, when they look through their pensioner and tried to make sure that everybody had a unique identity on the payroll. They found out 29,000 ghost pensioners, just because of the Ghana card and that saved SSNIT almost 400 million Ghana cedis.”
“National Service Secretariat found 44,000 ghost service personnel, saving over 350 million cedis. using digitalisation and the Ghana card, we’ve been able to eliminate all ghost workers on the controller and Accountant payroll and that’s a major advancement in the fight against corruption because these are the things that have been there for a very long time, but digitalisation is helping us to deal with it.”
