‘Ghost’ workers must be expunged from payroll

Salaries, allowances and other emoluments of public sector workers across the country consume a chunk of the government’s internally generated revenue.

This leaves a smaller percentage of what is collected every year for development and other infrastructure projects.

Much as governments work to reduce the number of people working in public sector institutions due to the over-bloated numbers, most of whom are redundant, the size of what is paid as salaries seldom drops.

This unfortunate phenomenon has been attributed to the existence of what has become known as ‘ghost names’ on the government’s payroll system.

Over the years, many attempts have been made by the government to either drastically reduce or fully eliminate the canker because of the dire effect it has on the public purse. But unfortunately, not much, or better still, nothing has been achieved so far.

The more attempts the government makes to end the phenomenon, the more the crafty ones who perpetrate such crimes adopt other means to outwit the systems and structures meant to prevent it.

Fortunately, however, the government, in its quest to bring an end to this criminal activity to save the public purse from further haemorrhage through the elimination of ghost workers once and for all, is demanding of all government workers to be paid through the filter of the e-zwich card, an electronic payment card introduced by the Bank of Ghana through the Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlements Systems (GhIPPS).

This means that all public sector workers who do not have the e-zwich card will be issued with the cards.

Dr Bawumia, who announced this at the launch of a new payment card in Accra yesterday (See full story on the front page), said the biometric feature of the e-zwich made it ideal for public sector payments because it was able to eliminate ghost workers.

It means that the money will be paid into every worker’s bank account but will be filtered through the e-zwich to make sure that the whole public sector payroll is devoid of ghost workers.

The Daily Graphic applauds the government for the bold initiative taken to stop the syphoning of monies from the public purse. Much as we see the initiative to be quite long overdue, we find the timing apt. It demonstrates the government’s resolve to fight corruption on all fronts using electronic and biometric means.

The world over, the use of technology and digitisation to solve the problem of ghost workers has been largely embraced and for Ghana to adopt such an initiative deserves commendation.
Against this background, we entreat all public sector workers to heed the directive and comply accordingly.

We strongly are of the view that the initiative will help save the country billions of cedis that will, otherwise have gone into the pockets of a few individuals who can best be described as nation wreckers.

The Daily Graphic would want to further prevail on the various worker associations and unions to educate their members on the positives of the new directive and work with the government to end the story of ghost workers in the country.

Particularly at a time when the government is struggling to meet its domestic revenue targets, we all must put our shoulders to the wheel to ensure that the little we have is jealously protected in the best interest of all and the country.