Kumasi, June 23, GNA - Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs, on Monday appealed to the Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD) to speed up the fiscal decentralization process in the country.

He said notwithstanding the strides made in ensuring financial accountability, much had not been achieved with regard to fiscal decentralization resulting in government workers especially pensioners having to travel long distances to transact business with the department.

Opening the 2008 delegates' conference of the CADG in Kumasi, Mr Mpiani said centralization of financial transactions at the Department created a fertile ground for corruption and other indiscipline acts. The three-day conference is under the theme "meeting the challenges of public financial management reforms" and is being attended by delegates from all the regional and district offices of the Department in the country.

Mr Mpiani said with the advent of modern information communication and technology, no excuse could be given for the continued processing of all transactions in Accra, adding that, the CAGD should pursue the decentralization, especially of pensions with all the vigour it deserved.

He also talked about indiscipline and negative acts by some staff of the Department which had resulted in huge financial loses to the state and cited the revelations at the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament hearing, saying it was the duty of staff of the Department to protect government resources and use the limited resources judiciously to yield maximum value.

Mr Mpiani appealed to the Department to put in every effort to address all issues of distortion and underpayment in the payroll system and reduce the complaints in the implementation of the Integrated Personal Payment Database two, (IPPD2) system. He appealed to the Department to educate and sensitise the public and all stakeholders on the new payroll system to reduce the level of anxiety and mistrust both on the part of the government and the Department.

He appealed to the staff of the Department to conduct themselves in the light of professionalism and demonstrate what would constitute the best treatment of government accounts devoid of malfeasance and manipulations.

Mr Christian Sottie, CAG, said the Department was collaborating with the University of Cape Coast to establish a Diplomat and Bachelor of Science programmes in Public Accounting to train personnel not only for the Department but other agencies as well. He said very soon all sub-vented organizations including the military and the Police Service would migrate onto the government payroll. This would rationalize all Personal Emolument (PE) on government payroll and control the persistent increase in the PE, which now stood at over 50 per cent of total government revenue. He said the Department had set up a pensions committee to resolve some of the grey areas involving pensions' payment, adding that, the Department was finalizing a manual that would facilitate the processing of pensions by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Mr Sottie stressed the need for effective resourcing of the Department, especially of its regional offices in view of the growing and expansion of the economy, which placed huge demand on the services of the Department.

He said discipline had been improved at the Department and the leadership and management were committed to their responsibilities. Mr Joe Issachar, Head of the Civil Service, who launched the maiden newsletter of the Department, mentioned delays in the delivery of service, poor customer care, discrimination and negative work attitude as some of the findings identified in the recent survey conducted by his outfit.

He mentioned some of the worst offending MDAs as the CAGD, Town and Country Planning Department, and the Registrar General's Department. 23 June 08