Spokesperson at the Office of the Vice President, Dr Gideon Boako, has disclosed that the newly launched E-travel card by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia will help mitigate the level of corruption in the country.
According to him, the card will ensure “proper checks and balances”, with the inclusion of transparency in government’s budgeting and budgetary allocations to be brought to bear. Mr Boako revealed that the issue of corruption in the country among public sector workers will be dealt with, with the introduction of the e-travel card.
“The other thing is also to curb the problem of corruption. Soo many things happen within the ministries, departments and agencies and so far as you work for government, [whether] you’re a civil servant or public servant, when you are travelling, these things are done. You and the accounting person cannot collude to take government’s monies for your own advantage”.
Dr Gideon Boako
Spokesperson at the Office of the Vice President, Dr Gideon Boako
Mr Boako intimated that the e-travel card will likewise make it possible for relevant officials to see the backend of an individual’s expenditure once he travels. He noted that if that person is found to have exceeded his funds “without justification” he would be required to pay back.
“Once you travel, every single expenditure you make, Controller will have a track of that… So, if you go and use the card to purchase anything you are not allowed to use the card for, Controller will see… So, there’s that level of transparency. Once you come back, you go to the accountant in your office to retire the impress and Controller will print the bank statement for that particular account… If Controller or the accounting people realize that you have to pay back some monies to government, you will be made to do so”.
Dr Gideon Boako
Expounding on the primary reason for the e-travel card, the Vice President’s spokesperson explained that the card is one of the “pet projects” of Dr Bawumia particularly in his pursuit of the digitisation and digitalisation drive which is basically aimed at improving government’s service deliveries. He underscored that through this, government will have proper controls on the “public finances” and not have monies go down the drain on the back of expenditures of government officials.
“So, of all the digitisation agenda that we’ve been pursuing, we also felt that there is the need, not just to look at how the public interact with government through government services but also how government interacts with the public and also how government spends public funds. So, we did this to kill a certain problem within our public sector budget and financing systems”.
Dr Gideon Boako
Public sector workers must pay back unused funds
Commenting on whether public officials return funds not used during their travels, Mr Boako revealed that although he isn’t abreast with information in that area, he can attest to the transparency of his outfit, for instance.
“I know for where I work and myself that anytime I have travelled and I come back, I have to go and impress if there are leftovers. If I exceeded and I have proper justification for that I make a case for that. But we are humans and we hear things in certain quarters. Somebody may travel and the person may have to lodge at a hotel and finds a friend’s place and sleep there and pockets the money. It’s government’s money, once you don’t use it you have to bring it back to government”
Dr Gideon Boako
Mr Boako noted that problems of such nature are a bane to government as he sees a lot of government’s money going into individual pockets. He indicated that as a result of this, foreign travels have become “hot cake” for persons within some ministries, department and agencies.
“Now what we have decided to do and this is basically something we worked on from the Vice President’s office is to make sure that every government official who is mandated to travel outside the country will not be given cash. Rather, the ministry or the department or agency will apply to Controller and once Controller approves… [he] will then load how much you’re supposed to be given for that travel unto a card”.
Dr Gideon Boako
READ ALSO: AFCON 2021: Senegal Clinches Historic Title
