The Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has launched the e-Travel Card to ensure public officials are longer given physical cash for their imprest when they travel for state duties.
Known as the Government of Ghana Staff and Travel Card, it will facilitate a cashless disbursement of travel allowances to public officials.
This means public officials who are issued with the e-Travel card will have their per diem and other allowances uploaded on the card, instead of being given physical cash.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Dr. Bawumia said it will help to ensure transparency and accountability.
He noted that overspending by public officials will also be checked while their budgetary allocations for travels can also be monitored and controlled better.
“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 Vice President wrote.
“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: “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 e-Travel card will be issued to public and government officials for local and foreign travels for state duties.
