Events
2007 Budget
Highlights
GDP rises to 6.2 per cent
An
evening of honor for H. E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Africa
Prize
When Grandpa turned 70
(Yaw's story)
Ghana Wesley Methodist Church, USA,
mourns with the Asafu-Adjayes
2006
Ghanaian Women's Courage Awards (Canada)
Ovation for Secretary General Annan
Ghanadot.com
Pictures of the Asantehene's visit to Morocco
Ambassador
Fritz Poku Retires
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March 11, 2016
Labor unrest major challenge to
political stability - Baah-Wiredu
Accra, Nov 16, GNA - Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of
Finance and Economic Planning, on Thursday said labour
agitation posed serious challenges to the economic and
political stability of the country.
"Government recognizes the legitimate agitations across
board in the Public Services about the inequities in the
administration of wages and salaries, however Ghana's
current Public Sector wage bill of 9.5 per cent of GDP is
twice as high as what obtains in other ECOWAS (Economic
Community of West African States) countries such as Nigeria
and The Gambia," he said.
Mr Baah-Wiredu, who was presenting the Governments fiscal
policy Budget for 2007 at the Parliament House, said as a
first step towards the implementation of the wages and
employment reform programme, and in order to stem the tide
of agitation and strikes, the distortions in the Ghana
Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) have been removed.
He said it represented the first phase of the rational and
comprehensive public sector pay structure that would be
implemented under Phase II, to be completed sometime in
2007, which would involve assessment of job content together
with the consequential placement of all public sector
employees.
"The resulting pay increase will then be completed in 2008
and accordingly, the GUSS salary structure will be abolished
in 2007".
He explained with statistical data that the Public Service
of Ghana was currently made up of 650,000 employees of which
350,000 were employed by 110 sub-vented organizations.
This year, the wage bill was estimated at ¢11 trillion or 40
per cent of Government's discretionary expenditures, while
Government was projecting ¢13.2 trillion, which represented
66 per cent of total discretionary expenditure for 2007.
Mr Baah-Wiredu attributed that huge bill to the failure over
the years by Governments to achieve a framework for rational
discussion and decision-making over wages and salaries,
which had led to a significant reduction in productivity in
the Public Services.
"As a result, there are currently several different salary
structures within the Public Services," he said stressing
"it is now time to take a decisive and long lasting action
to rationalise the public sector wage issue once and for
all."
Consequently, the Government has decided to implement a new
framework within which Public Sector salaries, wages,
negotiations, grading and pay administration would be
implemented.
Mr Baah-Wiredu said the Government outlined a comprehensive
plan in the 2006 Budget Statement to phase in a pay reform
programme over a three-year period for the enhancement of
wages in line with increases in productivity as well as
streamline the administration of payroll.
During 2006, two important consultations were held with
participation from organized labour, private sector
employers and the Government to find ways of addressing the
problem of low wages and salaries.
A technical team has also been working to develop
recommendations on wage and salary administration with the
support of a Steering Committee made up of stakeholders.
He said the final results from the programmes would lead to
the formulation of a comprehensive pay structure and system
that would reflect; the linkage of the Public Sector pay
structure with productivity, position and qualification.
It would also lead to the maintenance of a competitiveness
of Public Sector incomes relative to the private sector;
determination of the optimal number of workers to
effectively and efficiently support the delivery of Public
Services.
He explained that particular emphasis would be placed on the
sub-vented organizations, with innovative incentives
packages for employees, who would opt for early retirement
and out placement.
Mr Baah-Wiredu mention other programmes to enhance the
public sectors as the carrying out of job content and
evaluation analysis; elimination of the assortment of
non-cash monetary benefits and allowances through the
introduction of monetization of non-cash benefits.
He said to demonstrate Government's continued commitment to
the pay reform agenda, a Fair Wages Commission had been
established with full time legally mandated responsibility
to administer the new Comprehensive Pay Structure, maintain
its integrity and ensure equity on an ongoing basis.
"With the establishment of the Fair Wages Commission (FWC),
the mandates of existing institutions with similar roles
such as the Central Management Board, Public Service
Commission and the Appellate Body would be rationalised," he
said.
He said the Government had tasked the Commission to deliver
a detailed and holistic employment reform programme to be
implemented over a three to five year period.
He said the Government in the 2006 Budget Statement outlined
comprehensive measures to consolidate the various payroll
systems into the Integrated Personnel and Payroll database.
The initiative is expected to be completed in 2007. "This
consolidation would enable us to improve the monitoring of
payroll expenditures and eliminate the incidence of ghost
workers."
Mr Baah-Wiredu said the reforms would lead to a lean and
more efficient Public Service and enhance productivity,
which would include the mandatory installation of biometric
clock-in technology in all public institutions.
He said to keep the fiscal targets on track, the Government
would be looking for opportunities to eliminate public
institutions that were no longer needed and to consolidate
and streamline institutions whose activities overlap.
Decentralization and devolution would be stepped up to
improve the efficiency of the Government, he said.
GNA
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