President John Mahama has expressed concerns about the stiff resistance from some government accountants following attempts to use the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), to mitigate corruption\u00a0within the public sector.<\/p>\n
The President has blamed the high level of corruption in the public sector on human interference with the administration of public funds and weak systems.<\/p>\n
The GIFMIS is a system introduced by government to improve accountability, control, monitoring and auditing of government finances.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”xKSxo5j9Vd4AYHVwFUROSPavgFpfoxAd”]Speaking to journalists about the recent corruption cases in London, UK, President Mahama said: \u201cThere are accountants in places who just don\u2019t want to hear about GIFMIS. However much we\u2019ve trained them, they behave like still they don\u2019t understand the system,\u201d the frustrated President said.<\/p>\n
GIFMIS was also created in 2009 to among other things, provide accurate, timely and reliable financial information to central government and decentralized institutions and organizations in the country.<\/p>\n
Ghana has been hit with a number of corruption scandals including the recent massive corruption scandal at the National Service Secretariat (NSS) which saw the payment of over GHc7.9 to 22,000 nonexistent national service personnel<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in July 2014.<\/p>\n President Mahama also indicated that \u201csupervision is weak…\u00a0enforcement is weak. You appoint somebody to head a certain organization and he is supposed to enforce discipline in that organization, people just get off my auntie is dead four days away to funeral. You can\u2019t do that here, and so that is a problem, our systems are weak. We need to strengthen those systems.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, according the Judicial Service, Financial Administration Courts<\/a><\/strong><\/span> set up to deal with corrupt public officials, has not recorded even a single case since its establishment some nine months ago.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n