Ghana’s new e-Travel card laudable, says governance expert

Issaka Amon Kotei, a local governance expert, has praised the government for introducing the e-Travel Card to track local and foreign trips by public officials.

Kotei said the card is a step in the right direction.

The e-Travel card, which was launched by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia over the weekend, seeks to facilitate the cashless disbursement of travel allowances and other payments for local and foreign trips by public officials, as well as to monitor and control the budgetary allocations for official travel.

In an interview with Asaase News, Kotei maintained that the innovation has come at a crucial moment to check unnecessary public expenditure.

“This e-Travel card has been introduced and if you want to travel, you go by the E-Card. It is good to know where you [public officials] travelled from which point to what point. I mean, it’s good. We’re going to see the real-time when one travels from one point to the other.

“… It’ll check management, per diem and the frequency of travel and all that. Everything is captured in real time. It is not like somebody is going to the mother’s funeral and booking it as official travel. It’ll deal with all these things,” Kotei said.

The e-Travel Card launch
At the launch, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said that the card is designed to regulate and control waste and misappropriation of funds by travelling officials through a cashless disbursement of travel allowances and other payments for local and foreign trips by officials.

“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,” Bawumia posted on Facebook.

“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.”