The Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) has stated that it will not retract its decision requiring public sector employees to get a national identification card by December 1, 2021, or face losing their salaries.
A portion of government employees and unions have been agitating since the Department announced the order on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, with some requesting that the Controller and Accountant-General rethink the decision, remove it entirely, or extend the deadline.
Mr Cephas Narh Dosso, the Head of Public Relations at CADG, reiterated the Department’s order in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Thursday, saying it was the best approach to solve problems in the government’s payroll system.
He stated that Section 8(4) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), required the CAGD to accept, distribute, and provide secured custody for public funds, among other things.
He said that as a department that works with about 500,000 government employees, it was essential to implement steps to guarantee the integrity of the payroll at all times.
“We have a payroll that takes care of about 500,000 government employees nationwide. As a department, over the years, the CAGD has been instituting measures that will ensure that the integrity of the payroll is maintained at all times,” Mr Dosoo explained.
He rather urged the various public institutions and unions to educate their members to acquire the cards before the deadline.
Me Dosoo said: “We appreciate the concerns by our unions because they are our major stakeholders but, what we will say is that…we need to urge our colleague workers to avail themselves and go through the registration process. For now, the deadline is not today, and so the best thing to do is to avail ourselves.”
“When we get to the deadline we will review the data, and I am sure the right decisions will be taken by the right authorities,” he added.
The CAGD released a statement on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, warning that government employees without Ghana Cards will not be paid beginning December 1, 2021.
The move, it claimed, was part of the government’s attempts to provide workers and pensioners with a quick, secure, and verified payroll service while minimizing the possibility of undeserved payments or claims.
The National Identification Authority said earlier last month that over 15 million people have registered for the Ghana Card.
However, only 12 million of the total had been provided with their cards. The NIA also said that plans are being taken to ensure that the three million Ghanaians who have yet to get their cards do so.
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SOURCE: GNA
