As part of the strategy to eliminate ghost workers from the public sector payroll, the Controller and Account General has asked all public sector workers to enroll for the Ghana Card.
To make this possible, the National Identification Authority has dedicated a 10-day period for the registration of only public sector workers.
However, two days into the mandatory and free biometric registration of public workers without Ghana Card, patronage of the service has been completely low in spite of the large number of public sector employees without Ghana Card.
The National Identification Authority (NIA), in fulfillment of the government’s quest to rid its payroll of ghost names, started a mandatory Ghana Card registration for all public sector workers without the card on Monday, August 28, 2023, and the limited exercise which also includes the registration of first-time applicants above 15 years is expected to last for 10 days.
The special exercise follows a biometric audit conducted by the Controller and Accountant General Department in collaboration with the NIA last year which revealed that, out of 601000 public sector workers screened through their Ghana Card registration, the data of about 148060 did not match any data held by the NIA, raising serious issues of ghost-name fraud or double identities on government payroll.
However, in spite of the huge numbers, the designated centers for the registration of public sector workers without the Ghana Card have been deserted across the country and officials believe many people are not showing up because they are afraid of being exposed over ghost names and double identities due to stringent measures put in place by the Controller and Accountant General Department for registration of public sector workers.
“It is quite obvious that if you are involved in a ghost name scam or you have a double identity, you cannot come here because you will be exposed. It is a reason they are deserting the centers,” a registration supervisor in Accra confirmed the low patronage.
Source: Peacefmonline
