Accountant-General To Set Up Call Centre (Spread)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
THE Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) will soon establish a Call Centre where workers could call free from any part of the country to make enquiries on their salaries and other related matters.
The CAGD has, however, created a payroll help desk with telephone number 021-678801 to offer prompt assistance to workers on government payroll concerning problems related to their wages, salaries and other related matters.
These were contained in a statement released by the Controller and Accountant-General, Mr Christian T. Sottie, after a tour of Ho and Cape Coast to interact with the public, especially workers and pensioners, to see how best to improve upon service delivery.
The team of CAGD’s officials on the tour had already visited the Eastern Region, where similar fora were organised for workers and pensioners separately to deal with specific issues affecting each group.
Some of the issues which Mr Sottie touched on included the government payroll, promotional arrears, overpayment loan recovery, tax in arrears, tax on arrears, Ghana Medical Association (GMA) dues, third party deductions, delay in salaries and NAGRAT agitation.
Addressing the workers, Mr Sottie said it was unfortunate that the CAGD was always blamed when newly employed workers were not paid and explained that the department only paid employees whose data had been presented for payment by the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
For those already on the payroll but who had problems with their salaries, he said a technical problem which affected the new computer system (IPPD II) being used to process the payments had posed challenges not only to the consultants who supervised its implementation but also the CAGD in its payroll administration.
He, however, gave the assurance that the problem would be resolved soon to clear all arrears due workers, including promotional arrears, overpayment, loan recovery and some deductions which were done by mistake.
Talking to the pensioners, Mr Sottie said they formed a crucial part of the activities of the department, since it was a sensitive area where the government was interested in seeing transformation.
“It should be less stressful for our gallant public servants who have successfully served the nation,” he noted, pointing out that about 80 per cent of the work involving pension processing was performed by the MDAs and 20 per cent at the CAGD, adding that it was important to look at the process within the MDAs to remove bottlenecks.
He identified the late submission of documents and files by MDAs, the submission of incomplete and inaccurate information and third party confirmation of documents as some of the issues that created delays in processing pension documents.
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the CAGD, Mr Emmanuel K. Addo, said the series of fora had so far been successful.
He said the programme provided the avenue for the department to explain some of its operations and also obtain a feedback from workers.