The Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD) deleted 3,179 ghost names from the pay rolls of public institutions in Greater Accra alone between April and June this year.

This was as a result of the implementation of the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher System (E-SPV) system.

This was disclosed by Ms Grace Adzroe, Controller and Accountant General, at this year’s Annual Conference of the CAGD at Koforidua.

The conference, which is being attended by staff of the department, has the theme; “Financial Discipline; The Role of the Public Sector Accountant”

She said the E-SPV had been fully implemented in the Greater Accra Region and plans were far advanced for the extension of the system to other regions.

Ms Adzroe said the limitation of payment of salary arrears to three months was due to the detection of fraudulent deals in public institutions with regard to management of data on the date of appointments, promotions and reactivation of public sector employees.

She said with effect from January this year, if any salary arrears was to be paid beyond three months, then that had to be validated by the Audit Service and that the policy was being implemented to help check fraud and reduce budgetary shocks as a result of the practice.

Ms Adzroe said due to the weakness detected in the use of the biometric registration to check double names on the pay roll, the CAGD was working with the Inter Bank Settlement System for the use of the E-Zwich data to clean the payroll database at the point of payment.

She said the aim of using the E-Zwich data was to eliminate double bank accounts and duplication of names from the payroll database.

Ms Adzroe said in line with the policy, the Bank of Ghana had issued a directive to commercial banks, rural banks as well as savings and loans companies to make the e-zwich services available at all their branches to facilitate the implementation of the process.

She said soon, directives would be issued for all public servants to register with the E-zwich services.

Mrs Magdalene Appenteng of the Ministry of Finance, who represented the Minister, Mr Seth Terkper, assured the staff of the CAGD of Government’s support for the various financial reforms that the department had embarked upon to ensure financial discipline in the management of public finance.

She urged the staff of the CAGD not to take interest in only the GIFMIS but other public financial management reforms as well.

The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Ms Mavis Ama Frimpong, urged the staff of the CAGD to be courageous to review financial request submitted to their offices by the political leaders to ensure that the request conformed to the public financial regulations.

She said such financial discipline was needed if the country was to solve the current economic challenges and be able to move from the current economic level to a higher level.

Dr Kweku Owusu Acheampong, New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, urged the staff of the CAGD to strictly apply all the financial regulations of the country to help reduce abuse in the use of public funds.

Opanin Abraham Adusei, Member of the Council of State, who chaired the function, called for collective efforts to ensure the full implementation of the public sector financial regulations to help protect public funds. As part of the programme, Nana Agyekum Dwamena, acting Head of Civil Service, launched the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher Manual and the Transport Policy Manual of the CAGD.