By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Accra, May 9, GNA – Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa have been advised to invest in digital forensics and tools to assist them to track, trace and distract corruption networks.
They were also urged to acquire Customised Security Operations Centres to enable them to combat the corruption value chain and electronic fraud due to the sophistication of cybercrime operators globally.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia gave the advice at the 14th Regional Conference and Annual General Meeting of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Commonwealth Africa, in Accra on Thursday.
The week-long conference is on the theme: “Strengthening Institutions and Promoting Transparency: A Means of Fighting Corruption in Commonwealth Africa”.
It attracted 20 Commonwealth African countries to deliberate on ways to make corruption unattractive in Africa and promote wealth creation.
Dr Bawumia was of the firm belief that Ghana could fight corruption more efficiently if the Bank of Ghana (BoG) introduced the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), otherwise known as the eCedi.
“The Central Bank Digital Currency will be our ultimate weapon in our fight against corruption because the eCedi will make it easy to track the movements of money and identify suspicious activities.”
It would also enable the Central Bank to ensure high-level transparency, reduce the risk of fraud, tax avoidance and money laundering.
He highlighted some of the digital initiatives the Government had implemented since 2017, which were yielding immense benefits to the nation.
Dr Bawumia said, for instance, the ghana.gov portal, which was a one-stop platform for paying public services electronically enabled the government to collect GHc201 billion since 2020.
With the digitalisation of passport application at the Passport Office, applications jumped from 347,000 to 752,000 while revenues increased from GHc12 million to GHc94 million between 2018 and 2023.
The integration of the public sector databases through the use of GhanaCard, for instance, enabled the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to expunge 29,000 ‘ghost’ pensioners from the public sector payroll, which is saving the nation GHC480 million annually.
The use of unique identity card (GhanaCard) enabled the Government to detect 44,707 ghost names on the National Service Scheme payroll and saved the nation GHc356 million, he said.
GNA