Ghanaian Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has launched an e-Travel Card for all public officials in the country.
The electronic travel card will control the travel expenditure of the government and public officials. The card is designed to regulate and control waste and misappropriation of funds by traveling officials through a cashless disbursement of travel allowances and other payments for local and foreign trips by officials.
According to Dr. Bawumia, “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.
The Reason: e-Travel Card will 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 pointed
He added: “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”.
He believes, “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.
