CAGD to pay salaries by electronic means
The Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) will roll out a new electronic salary payment system for all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) by the end of July, this year.
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Dubbed the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher (E-SPV), the system seeks to address issues of bloating of the public payroll and eliminate ghost names associated with the current manual payment voucher system
The system has been piloted at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra and the CAGD as a department.
A roll out of the new system in the Greater Accra Region is to be completed by the end of March this year.
Sensitisation workshop
At a sensitisation programme on the new system for heads of departments of the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and their heads of Accounts and Human Resource (HR), the acting Controller and Accountant-General, Ms Grace Adzroe, said the new payment voucher would help eliminate the inefficiencies and leakages on the national payroll system.
The E-SPV system
The E-SPV, Ms Adzroe explained, was an electronic version of the manual salary payment voucher that must be validated by using the Internet, saying that this was in line with the department’s policy of employing ICT as a tool for improving service delivery.
The time lines set for the validation and certification of the payment voucher is 48 hours after data is made available on the system.
She further explained that the E-SPV was introduced against the backdrop of concerns regarding the high wage bill of public servants and the commitment of the government to have a robust payroll system that would ensure effective and efficient management of payroll cost by eliminating unauthorised payments.
Reducing payroll cost
Such a system, Ms Adzroe said, gave heads of departments and HR managers ready access to information, for monitoring and for controlling payroll cost.
She said several factors might account for the increasing wage bill but “our concern as managers of the payroll is to eliminate the systemic inefficiencies and leakages in the payroll system”, adding that the E-SPV would enable the Head of Department to exercise budgetary control.
Ms Adzroe warned that in line with the policy, any head of department who failed to certify the E-SPV before the deadline would take responsibility for the non-payment of salary to staff of the particular management unit.
Writer's email: rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh