The Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has stated, that the Akufo-Addo government’s infusion of digitalization in the provision of government services as part of the fight against corruption is beginning to yield major results, with even more interventions planned to fight it even harder.
Speaking at the 2022 edition of the Annual Conference of the Institute of Internal Auditors (Ghana) in Accra on Thursday 5th May, 2022, the vice president stressed that Government is “very, very committed” to the fight against corruption, and will continue to infuse digitalization into the operations of state institutions to ensure more transparency.
Photo credit: Dr. Bawumia’s diary
“Building strong institutions means putting in place the right systems and practices that ensure transparency and brings about efficiency. With this, although corruption may remain a chronic disease, transparency will be its vaccine to reduce the rate of spread. As the saying goes, our biggest disease is corruption and the vaccine is transparency. Corrupt people hate transparency,” he indicated.
“I would like to draw your attention to where we are as a country in our digitalization process. We have made tremendous progress in building the digital infrastructure that serves as the bedrock for our digitalized economy as part of the paradigm shift in our economic transformation.
“We approached the building of this digital infrastructure on the key pillars of standardizing individual identification using the Ghana Card; solving the address and property systems using GhanaPostGPS; solving under-banking and bringing financial inclusion to most people through a robust mobile money and bank interoperability and digital payment platform; and integration of Government Databases and digitising public service delivery using the Ghana.gov platform.”
“Already, we are seeing the impacts of these initiatives including efficient public service delivery by all Ministries, Departments and Agencies on the Ghana.gov portal, combatting corruption by removing the middle-man and “ghost names” in many transactions, bringing more Ghanaians into the formal sector, and driving domestic revenue mobilization, among others.
“If you take the Passport Office for instance, in 2017 there were about 16,000 applications for passports generating about Ghs1m. But with the advent of digitization, there were over 498,000 online applications in 2021, generating over Ghs56m. Similar things are happening at the DVLA, the ports, and other institutions.
“Recently, due to the introduction of e-tickets, we recorded the highest gate proceeds from a football match in Ghana. We will continue to shine the light of transparency in all aspects of national life.”
However, he charged Internal Auditors to play their part in the fight against corruption, given their key role in the governance structure in institutions both public and private.
“As internal auditors in a digitalized economy, your ability to provide independent assurance that public sector institutions’ risk management, governance and internal control processes are operating effectively depends first and foremost on your embracing and adoption of digital technology. It is critical for those responsible for governance to embrace digitalization for survival and growth.
“In tune with the mission of the Institute of Internal Auditors, the internal audit function must be well-positioned to help organizations accomplish their objectives by providing insight and foresight. This, must be achieved by adopting the systematic disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance.”
Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen
Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your adverts and credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
