New application to detect ghost names ready

The Public Services Commission (PSC) is hopeful of extending its Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) project to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) by end of year, to completely expunge ghost names from government payroll.

“The HRMIS system, when fully operational, will reduce the possibility of ghost names or people being paid double; because the system has restrictions that will not allow entry of invalid data or names of people who were not working, which will save money that could be used for the nation’s socioeconomic development,” said Dr. Lawrence Kannae, Vice Chairman of the Commission.

Dr. Kannae was speaking at an HRMIS training workshop for MDAs in Accra, aimed at providing end-users of the HRMIS system with requisite skills to operate it before full deployment later this year.

He said: “We hope that by the end of this year we would have trained 1,028 staff, mainly from the human resource, budget and accounting classes of the public service, to ensure an efficient public financial management.

“This is what is being rolled out now, and we hope that by the end of this year we will extend it to all the 120-public service organisations that are on government payroll.”

Dr. Kannae explained that the HRMIS will enable information about human resources to be linked to the payroll and subsequently with the budget, so that it will facilitate effective and efficient public financial management.

He said it will also help reduce the time required for processing documents of newly-recruited staff, and issues like promotions and updates of human resources in the various public sector organisations.

The system should reduce the time required for newly-recruited employees to obtain their first pay within a very reasonable period.

He said when the HRMIS becomes fully operational, newly-recruited government workers will be able to have their first salaries within a maximum period of two months, once their data information is captured onto the system.

“Probably, if it is initiated at an early part of the month, that employee can get his or her first pay at the end of the same month.

But at maximum, within two months they should be able to get their first pay – which is better than what exists now, where a new employee may take three to six months; and even, in some cases, one year before they receive their first salary,” he said.

He explained that they were training the rest of the public services agencies and preparing them in batches to be enrolled onto the system.

Dr. Mohammed Sani Abdulai, the Project Director, Public Financial Management Reforms Project (PFMRP), urged human resource managers of the MDAs to ensure the HRMIS succeeds.

The HRMIS falls under component-two of the PFMRP and seeks to focus on completing the establishment registers for the remaining government workforce; and completing the rollout of the HRMIS core application, including establishment, profile and cost management, to enhance its coverage to all MDAs, services, commissions and all 10 regions.

The rationale for the HRMIS is to establish a comprehensive, common human resource database of all public service employees, with the view to strengthening controls around entrance, exit promotions, and positions across the various service groups.

The PFMRP seeks to achieve improvement in budget management and financial control and reporting of government, with the aim of enhancing fiscal discipline, strategic allocation of resources and service delivery efficiency through strengthened systems and procedures, and targetted capacity-building.