Deputy Minister of Finance, Thomas Ampem Nyarko
Government has set aside some GH¢48 million in the 2025 budget for the training and certification of over 3,200 public financial managers and accountants in International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) compliance, digital reporting and internal audit standards, Thomas Ampem Nyarko, Deputy Minister of Finance, has announced.
The plan, he said, was in line with President John Mahama’s public sector digitisation and fiscal accountability agenda in scaling systems and investing in people.
“This forms part of our broader policy of building a digitally competent and ethically grounded public workforce,” he said at the 2025 Annual Conference of the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) in Ho.
The two-day conference at the Ho Technical University auditorium had in attendance accountants and related professionals across the country. It is under the theme “Enhancing Public Financial Management Excellence.”
Darko said the Ministry is aggressively pursuing cost-saving innovations and, for instance, collaborating with CAGD to develop a Digital Treasury Dashboard, which would be pilot-implemented in five ministries this year.
He explained that the dashboard would allow live monitoring of fund disbursements and project progress and target a 15 per cent reduction in administrative waste.
The Deputy Minister, however, indicated that beyond systems and numbers lay a higher responsibility; restoring public confidence and regaining trust.
He said to enhance payroll integrity through the rollout of integrated payroll and personal database phase II, which is expected to clean up ghost names and likely to save the public purse approximately GH¢300 million annually.
Again, he said the Ministry is implementing a new Electronic Assets and Liabilities Declaration System in partnership with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Audit Service to improve transparency and accountability among public officers.
James Gunu, Volta Regional Minister, who was represented by Augustus Awity, Chief Director of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC), insisted the management of CAGD reconsider bringing back its Disaster Recovery Centre, now relocated to the Ashanti Region.
The Minister said no explanation was offered for relocating the centre and the same should be applied in reversing the centre to the Volta Region, with utmost urgency.
