March 11, 2016

Finance Minister calls for strong financial management in public sector
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot

Accra, May 26, Ghanadot - The Minister of Minister and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffour has called on the accountants and auditors of Ghana’s public sector to ensure strong financial management in the country.

According to him “strong financial management in the public sector is not a luxury but a necessity. We are in an era of increased demand for accountability and transparency in government.

Dr. Duffour made the call in a speech read for him at the opening of a week-long training workshop on International Public Sector Accounting Standards (ISPSA) in Accra yesterday.

The workshop is designed specifically for the Forum of Auditors and Accountants-Generals in West Africa (FAAGWA).

Dr. Duffour who read the keynote address also called on public officials including the politicians and public servants to answer for their actions and inactions and to show evidence that public fund are utilized for public interest and not their parochial interest.

The stakeholders of the public sector are demanding more effective and efficient use of public resources and accounting for them. Accountants and auditors have a major role to play in ensuring accountability and transparency in the country’s public sector, the Minister urged.

Dr. Duffour appealed to the participants to consider how to use the train to surmount the corruption canker which has bedeviled the public sector service delivery especially in the West African sub-region.

Furthermore, he appealed to them to use the new standards acquired from the training to decentralize public financial management to the regions, states, provinces, districts and local government levels.

The Minister alluded that “The National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s commitment to fighting corruption is in line with its manifesto and also article 35(8) of the constitution which states that “The state shall take steps to eradicate corrupt practices and the abuse of power”. We stand ready to put in place preventive and corrective measures to curb corruption” in the country.

The fight against corruption is linked to the fight against poverty. In fact, poverty and corruption are interlinked.

In other words, corruption is a major cause of poverty and poverty is a major cause of corruption-they reinforce each other.

With growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or increase in wealth creation, corruption widens the gap between the poor and the rich. The rich become richer and the poor, poorer.

To this end, corruption is a recipe for disaster which can lead to breach of peace and social. We can not be serious with any developmental or growth agenda, poverty reduction strategy, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or whatever, without keeping a very close eye on corruption.
Therefore, Dr. Duffour warned that public officials including politicians and public servants who misappropriate public funds or resources shall be made to face the full rigours of the law.
Ghanadot


Gov’t payroll, pension payment to be decentralized in 2010
Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot

The problems of pensioners and other government salary workers in traveling to nation’s capital, Accra to collect salaries and solve issues concerning their emoluments and others will soon be over as the Controller and Accountant-General Department will by the end of this year pilot the decentralization of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) system in Kumasi and Tamale, both in the Ashanti and Northern regions.

The Tamale centre will in the interim take care of all workers and pensioners in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions, the Kumasi centre will care for the Ashanti and the Brong Ahafo regions whiles the current one in Accra continues to carter for other regions.

It is therefore expected that by 2010, the IPPD also known as the government payroll and pension payment will be extended to each region of the country such that each regional capital will be processing and paying salaries and pensions of those in the region.

This will reduce the time it takes to capture data onto the IPPD system for active workers and pensioners.

This came to light at the opening of a four day training workshop on International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in Accra.

The focus of the training on IPSAS, the Acting Controller and Accountant-General, Mr. Eugene Ofosuhene and the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffour acknowledged the IPSAS Board has set for itself the task of developing a full set of accruals-based international public sector accounting standards, promoting these standards and ensuring that they are adopted as widely as possible.
 

Ghanadot