Ghost names on government payroll will soon become a thing of the past, Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed.

This is because the National Identification Card will be linked to the public sector payroll and that will make it easier for all public sector workers to be tracked and identified.

According to Dr. Bawumia, government is building a digital ecosystem in terms of provision of government services including passport and driver’s license acquisitions that will boost development.

“We are also linking the National ID card with the database at the Controller and Accountant General Department. This is where the government payment roll is done; you known that for many many years we have been struggling with this problem of ghost workers on government payroll. Now, this linkage should be completed in the next few months with the payroll of the national ID card”, he disclosed at the launch of the Mobile Technology for Development Conference organized by the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber.

“And once that is completed the problem of ghost workers on government payroll which has bedeviled our public financial system for many many years will become history. That problem will no longer exist because every government worker will have a unique set of fingerprints and ghosts [nonexistent or dead people] will not have any fingerprints. So this is a major point that we are looking at”, the Vice President emphasized.

He reiterated that the national ID card will solve many problems, adding, it will play a major role in the digital ecosystem.

“We did the national ID card and we are linking the national ID card to the major databases and this is going to solve a lot of problems and make acquisitions of passports, driver’s license and so on. These are all going to be linked”.

He further said that “work is ongoing at the Passport office, Drivers and Vehicle Licensing Authority and so on. So we are creating an ecosystem in terms of provision of government services that will really have impact on development because once you have an identity, and then you will have some integrity, some trust in the transactions that are undertaken”.

The Vice President since assuming office in January 2017 has been championing numerous digitization programmes to push the economy into a cash-lite society.

They include the digital address system and the QR Code where you can easily pay for food at a food joint.