My govt will use digitalisation to curb corruption – Bawumia at manifesto launch

Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP flagbearer, has announced plans to use digitalisation tools and adopt proactive measures in combating corruption, stating that successive governments’ efforts have largely been reactive.

Speaking during the NPP’s manifesto launch on Sunday, he said, “Our approach so far has been to deal with corruption after it occurs,” adding that their new approach would be to deal with corruption before it occurs using digitalisation.

He revealed that the Ghana Card has significantly reduced the number of ghost workers in some public institutions, including the Controller and Accountant Generals Department and the National Service Scheme, saving the country some GHC 800 million.

“The Ghana Card has enabled us basically to eliminate ghost workers from the Controller and Accountant General payroll; also from the SSNIT payroll and the National Service payroll.”

“Using the Ghana Card and the elimination of ghost workers in SSNIT and the National Service Scheme, we have saved GHC 800 million in just these two institutions,” Dr. Bawumia said.

He said the Bank of Ghana is still working on processes towards deploying the county’s first ever digital currency, also known as the eCedi, which will constitute an important step towards ensuring a cashless society while improving transparency and reducing corruption.

“We have put in place the necessary infrastructure to go cashless as a country. Recently, the Bank of Ghana has completed a pilot of the digital version of the Ghana Cedi in Sefwi Wiawso. This is known as the Central Bank digital currency, or the e-cedi. The e-cedi is designed to work online and offline and will be launched by the Bank of Ghana in due course.”

“The eCedi will be our ultimate weapon in our fight against corruption because it will provide transparency, reduce the risk of fraud, robbery tax avoidance, and money laundering since it will be easy to track the movement of money and identify suspicious activity,” he explained further.

Further, the vice president hinted at the implementation of blockchain technology and smart contracts to permanently secure documentation of government activities and transactions and check corruption.

According to him, Ghana would be the first country in Africa and one of the few in the world should it be successful with the blockchain implementation.