Ghana loses over GH¢400 million to ghost names on the Social Security and National Insurance Trust SSNIT pension scheme and the National Service Scheme (NSS), Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has stated.
According to him, Ghana's unique identification system has helped in identifying about 27,000 ghost pensioners who were on SSNIT as well as about 14,000 ghost names on the NSS.
“14,000 ghost names were recently found at the National Service because there was no unique identity. Just a couple of days ago, SSNIT found 27,000 ghost names, and they were being paid GH¢327 million. Just these two institutions have cost us over GH¢400 million,” Dr. Bawumia noted while speaking at the 2021 Civil Service Awards Night in Accra.
He insisted that an improved identification system would help deal with ghost names on the government payroll.
He further justified his earlier comment on his preference for the Ghana Card over one thousand interchanges.
“It seems my Ghana card statement was misinterpreted. I want people to think about it critically. For the first time in our history, we have a unique identity system which is biometric, and so we can identify individuals.”
“With this, the case of ghost names on our public sector system will become a thing of the past.”
Ghana Card over one thousand interchanges, what Bawumia said.
While speaking at the launch of two new high-level information technology programmes at the Accra Business School at Baatsona in Accra, declared his preference for the national identification card, otherwise called the Ghana Card, over 1,000 interchanges.
“Some of the problems go back to independence. We inherited a problem of no unique national identification system. This has been with us since independence. We had implemented a national identification system for the Ghana Card.
"Today, we have 16 million Ghanaians with unique identities, and that is a major transformation. A lot of people sometimes do not appreciate its impact.
“If you gave me 1000 interchanges and the Ghana Card, I would choose the Ghana Card because it has more impact,” Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said.
Meanwhile, GhanaWeb is accepting nominations for the prestigious GhanaWeb Excellence Awards – Youth Edition. Click here to nominate.
PEN
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia