Dr Bawumia outdoors 'e-Travel Card' for government, public officials

e-Travel Card to regulate spending

e-Travel Card to boost cashless agenda

Era of cash for travel in the public sector to be over, Bawumia

Government has launched an electronic travel card in a bid to ensure control of expenditure by public and government officials during domestic and foreign trips.

Known as the 'e-Travel Card', the tool has been designed to regulate and curb excessive spending as well as misappropriation of funds on the part of travelling officials.

Making the announcement on the 'e-Travel Card' in a Facebook post, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia explained that the card will operate via a cashless disbursement regime for travel allowances and other payments meant for domestic and foreign travels.

“Since Independence, public officials are provided cash for their imprest when they travel. This system has many associated problems including the risks of carrying cash, fraud in the disbursement of imprest, the increasing use of cashless payment channels in many jurisdictions, ineffective monitoring and controls, etc,” Bawumia posted on Facebook.

“Today, that era is coming to an end with my launch of the e-Travel Card to facilitate the cashless disbursement of travel allowance and other payments for local and foreign trips of public officials. All officials will be issued with the e-Travel card and their imprest and per diem for travel will automatically be put on the card for use,” he added.

Dr. Bawumia further outlined the benefits of the e-Travel Card which he believes will offer several benefits to users.

“The e-Travel Card is expected to deliver several benefits, including the elimination of the risk of carrying cash; transparency and ease of accountability; timely retirement of accountable Imprest; and improved monitoring and controls of budgetary allocations for official travels to avoid overspending.

"The era of cash for travel in the public sector will soon be over, bringing further transparency and accountability in the use of public funds,” the vice president’s post concluded.