Private legal practitioner and former Member of Parliament for Tamale North Inusah Fuseini has asked government to make facilities available for quicker process of registering for the Ghana Card.
This he said will help to eliminate fears being entertained by the Civil Servants following announcement by Controller and Accountant General Department that it will withhold salaries of employees without Ghana Card.
A press statement by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department on October 13, 2021 said Government workers without Ghana Cards will not be paid from December 1, 2021.
It held that the new policy forms part of ongoing measures to harmonise its systems.
This the Department said forms part synchronization of its financial remuneration process, saying the card will ensure a speedy administration of the payroll.
Some civil servants described the move by government as bad and attempt to punish the already suffering Ghanaian worker.
President of NAGRAT Angel Cabonu in a radio interview on Citi FM described it as “very displeasing”.
He insisted the announcement by the Controller appeared to be forcing and threatening workers with the initiative, instead of giving them enough time for those without the card to acquire it.
But former Tamale North MP holds different view.
Reacting to the announcement on Thursday October 14, 2021 in an interview with Noel Nutsugah host of Statecraft on Zylofon FM, Mr. Fuseini explained that “the Ghana card is being connected to many services such as your Personal Identification Number (PIN), the Tax Identification Number (TIN) and SSNIT to ensure that you are really paying the relevant taxes”.
“If you don’t have the Ghana card it becomes impossible to assess whether you paying the relevant taxes, what activities you are involved in whether or not you are worker or a ghost worker” he added.
He said the policy is to activate the existing primary contract between the government and the government employee which state that one get paid if provided a certain service, saying to get paid as a public sector worker, you show a prove of a bank account and evidence of a Ghana card to be identified as a real worker. “So, this is another way of checking if people are actually working”
He noted that the policy when comes to force, will let “Government will find out if you are into other business aside working for the government because the Ghana card is linked to your TIN for the purpose of extracting taxes”.
“It’s important for government to make facilities available to help public workers comply to register for the Ghana card” he concluded
