According to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, the Akufo-Addo administration’s use of digital technology in government services is starting to show significant achievements in fighting corruption.
The Vice President said the Government is “very, very committed” to fighting corruption and would continue to digitalize public institutions’ activities to promote more openness.
In order to create powerful institutions, it is necessary to have transparent processes and practices. Even though corruption is a chronic illness, openness may help slow its growth. One may argue that openness is our worst ailment and our greatest cure. “Corruption despises transparency,” he said.
So far, Dr. Bawumia says, the government has used technology and digitalization as an anti-corruption approach, as well as an easy, inexpensive access strategy.
Then I’d like to bring your attention to our country’s digitalization status. With the paradigm change in our economic transformation, we have made great strides in establishing the digital infrastructure that underpins our digitalised economy
To solve under-banking and bring financial inclusion to most people, we built a robust mobile money and bank interoperability and digital payment platform, integrated government databases, and digitised public service delivery using Ghana.gov. The Ghana Card is a standardised method of individual identification used by the Ghana Government.
Dr Bawumia said “even more transparency” would be injected to “shine a light into the dark depths of corruption,” citing substantial increases in income and performance of government entities that have embraced technology.
As a result of these activities, more Ghanaians are now working in the formal sector, reducing corruption by eliminating middlemen and “ghost names” from numerous transactions, and increasing domestic tax collection.
The Passport Office received over 16,000 passport applications in 2017, earning around Ghs1 million. In 2021, there were over 498,000 online applications, earning approximately Ghs56m, thanks to digitalization. The DVLA, ports, and other organizations are experiencing similar problems.
Our most recent football match in Ghana had the greatest gate profits owing to the introduction of e-tickets. In all sectors of national life, we shall continue to shine the transparency light.”
An important function in the governance structure of public and commercial organisations, Internal Auditors were entrusted by the Vice President to help combat corruption.
You must embrace and implement digital technology to give independent assurance that public sector risk management, governance, and internal control procedures are running successfully. Embracing digitization is vital for the survival and prosperity of government.
The internal audit function must be able to provide insight and foresight to assist organizations to achieve their goals, in line with the Institute of Internal Auditors’ purpose. So that risk management, control and governance are more effective.
Institutions should engage in internal audit staff training to increase their efficiency and effectiveness in predicting, recognizing, and resolving difficulties, said Institute of Internal Auditors President Harriet Karikari (pictured).
