Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia has once again touted government's digitilization agenda.

He noted that the issuance of the unique national ID as a result of digitilization has helped to fish out ghost workers from the public sector payroll.

This, he explained, is because "ghosts cannot have fingerprints and we are able to fish them out.”

Dr. Bawumia said this when he spoke as a guest speaker at the inauguration ceremony of Academic City University College on Wednesday, August 17, 2022.

Academic City University College was established four years ago with a vision to be a world-class center for learning, innovation and entrepreneurship that nurtures future leaders.

The Vice President was referring to an earlier disclosure he made to the effect that 533 'ghost' names have been discovered by the Controller and Accountant-General's Department on the public sector payroll.

This includes duplicates, a phenomenon that is contributing to the worsening economic outlook of the country.

"This forms part of the administration’s efforts to block loopholes and cut back on corruption and corruption-related activities.

Government says it is attempting to cut back on wastage and corruption and has rolled out mechanisms including sanitising the public payroll, digitalisation, and enhancing value for money in public expenditure.

In the first phase of the clean-up exercises by the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department and the National Identification Authority (NIA), Dr. Bawumia says the institutions uncovered some 533 ghost names with multiple identities on the public payroll," he said.

The 'ghost' names, according to Dr. Bawumia, have more than one Controller and Accountant-General’s Department account with different employee numbers.

Some 148,000 people whose data did not match the identification of anyone in the database of the Ghana Card were also discovered.

Dr. Bawumia who expressed worry about the revelation said the team will get to the bottom of the development.

“I’ve heard of 'ghost' workers but I’ve never heard of ghosts who are twins or triplets…that’s a new one but we will get to the bottom of the corruption with ghost workers on our payroll,” he explained on Tuesday at the Annual Internal Audit Conference in Accra.

Dr. Bawumia went on to say that the culprits “should be punished to serve as a deterrent.”

The Vice President congratulated authorities of Academic City University College for being the first institution in the region to offer a Bachelor’s Programme in Artificial Intelligence and other forward-thinking programmes such as Robotics and Biometric Engineering.

He also commended the University for developing a less expensive ventilator, which per reports, “the project is currently going through appropriate tests and permissions and it will soon be available in our hospitals and clinics to improve health care around the country.”

“It has been only four years since Academic City University College opened its doors and it has already assumed a pivotal position in reshaping higher education in Ghana and the sub-region,” he said.