Mr Eugene Asante Ofusuhene, the Controller and Accountant General, said effective use of the (GIFMIS) introduced by the Department had the potential to reduce corruption at the Assemblies.

Mr Ofosuhene gave the advice when he paid a courtesy call on Mr Evans Opoku Bobie, the Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister to kick start his day's working visit to the region on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Controller and Accountant General's Department (CAGD) launched the GIFMIS in 2009 as part of the Public Sector Financial Management Reforms. It involves the use of Enterprise Resource Planning to improve on public sector financial management.

Accompanied by Mr. Asare Fianko, a Deputy Controller and Accountant General in-charge of Finance, Mr. Samuel Duodu, the Director of Administration and other key staff of the CAGD, the visit would take Mr Ofosuhene to Sunyani West and Tano North Districts.

The Controller and Accountant General explained that his Department had undertaken several reforms including; the GIFMIS, saying by the end of June this year all the Assemblies would have been hooked onto the System. He said with improved data collection, the GIFMIS would enable the Assemblies to monitor revenue collection, disbursement and judicious utilisation of the IGF for development purposes.

He said the CAGD played critical role towards successful implementation of government's poverty intervention programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, saying it was the responsibility of the Department to disburse funds for the programmes. "GIFMIS is a high speed system which prevents fraud. Once you hook onto the system, it will be difficult to manipulate figures", he added.

Mr Bobie expressed discomfort that corruption remained a major setback to accelerated national development and advised the CAGD to organise regular training programmes for officers who handled the GIFMIS and also strengthen the internal control systems to fight corruption.

Mr Bobie said the various Assemblies had signed the government performance contract agreement hence the need for the CAGD to ensure rapid disbursement of funds to enable the Assemblies to achieve high performance and set targets.

By Dennis Peprah/Jeffrey Tamakloe, GNA