General News of Wednesday, 21 January 2015
Source: citifmonline.com
Chairman of SOFTribe, the company that developed the software for Ghana’s payroll system, insists that the confidential letters covering its contract with the state was made public to set the records straight not to spite government.
“We don’t intend to be malicious, we don’t intend to have any problem with anybody. We only wanted to set the records straight,” he said.
The Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) blamed SOFTribe’s ‘Akatua’ software for revelations by IMANI Ghana of supposed rot in the public payroll system.
IMANI Ghana had accused the department of supervising a bloated public payroll system.
In defending their product, SOFTribe released some letters exchanged between the two institutions to the public, a situation that has annoyed the Controller and Accountant General.
The CAGD is threatening to sue the company for releasing such documents.
But speaking on Eyewitness News, the chairman of the company, Chinery Hesse argued that releasing the letters does not constitute a breach of trust.
He explained that “We only responded because our name was being dragged into disrepute in the media by CAGD. We are not here to fight with anybody; we just wanted to avoid any doubt. We are technical people, this is how we communicate, when we make a statement we like to back it with evidence.”
He said the payroll system is a national issue and that “we should all be interested in fixing it.”
He assured that they will continue to work in the interest of Ghana adding that “we are ready to serve our country and to solve the payroll problem so it works for our economy.”
The Controller and Accountant General, Grace Francisca Adzroe on Tuesday insisted that the publication of the materials threaten the security of their system, their staff and Ghanaian workers whose information is captured in these sensitive materials adding that “We also take exception to the publishing of the letters and the full payroll assurance report (KPMG) on the internet.”