You can read his full statement below:
I have taken this decision in the best interest of my personal
convictions that whilst unfettered power is recipe for absolutism, all
checks and balances within government must be orderly especially when
professional jealousy, integrity and one’s ability to execute mandates
are at stake.
Following the successful National Forum on Single Spine Pay Policy
held in Ho in August this year, a sixteen-member Post-Forum
Implementation Committee on the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) was
publicly inaugurated on August 22, 2013 by the Ministry of Employment
and Labour Relations under the Chairmanship of Hon. Paul Victor Obeng.
I was invited by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to
be a member of the 16-man committee. I believe my invitation was due in
part to the pre-implementation analysis of the predictable repercussions
my think tank, IMANI did on the wholesale implementation of the pay
policy.
The Terms of Reference for the Post-Forum Implementation Committee on
the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) were hinged on ‘’sustainability of
the pay policy” having of course realized that the pay policy allegedly
constituted nearly 70% of all government generated revenues in the
process eclipsing resources critically needed for national capacity
building and investment in facilities to enhance productivity. An
important resolution reached at the National Forum on Single Spine Pay
Policy in Ho in August 2013, was that “Subvented agencies [of
government] which can be on their own should be identified and weaned
off government subvention without delay”
There are over 130 of such agencies and counting. A subcommittee of
seven persons within the 16-member post-forum implementation committee
was tasked by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations to begin
discussions with the first set of identified agencies to be weaned off.
Suffice to say the first set to be weaned off was announced in the 2014
budget statement. Together with the CEO of the Fair Wages and Salaries
Commission, the Lawyer for the Commission, two senior representatives of
the Public Sector Reform, and a senior representative of the Ghana
Employers Association, we had begun meeting the subvented agencies who
were eager to discuss the modalities for a phased parting from
government’s payroll.
The subcommittee listed the below it had started
meeting and engaging.
• Driver & Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA)
• Forestry Commission
• Food and Drugs Authority
• Security and Exchange Commission
• Vice-Chancellors, Ghana
• Polytechnics
• Ghana Standards Authority
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Korle Bu Teaching Hospital
• Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
Unfortunately, the subcommittee has been asked by the Finance
Ministry as communicated to the CEO of the Fair Wages and Salaries
Commission that we stop our meetings until further directives are
issued. It may be possible that the Finance Ministry is concerned about
compensation, possible retrenchment and unemployment that may result
from the sub-committee’s work. However, we had our work cut out as we
were guided by the Subvented Agencies Act, Act 706 and in particular by
the urgency of reducing the wage bill.
I consider this intervention as needless; a usurpation of the
authority of the Ministry of Employment Labour Relations, will crucially
affect the successful completion of the sub-committee’s work and
ultimately delay the much needed reforms to reduce the burden of the
public workforce on the wage bill.
I have taken this decision in the best interest of my personal
convictions that whilst unfettered power is recipe for absolutism, all
checks and balances within government must be orderly especially when
professional jealousy, integrity and one’s ability to execute mandates
are at stake. I thank Hon. Paul Victor Obeng, The Ministers of
Employment and Labour Relations, Finance Ministry, the CEO and Staff of
the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and my fellow Committee Members. I
wish you every success in the years ahead.
As always, IMANI will be willing to contribute to national debates on
critical issues when invited and properly ordered. Meanwhile, for a
successful rationalisation of wages and salaries to meet national
productivity requirements that aligns with policy reforms that are
urgently needed, the following are critical first steps.
Recommendations:
1. A total skills rationalization is needed within the public
service. That 75% of all public sector workers are classified as
semi-skilled and unskilled is worrying.
2. The Controller and Accountant General’ must sublet payroll
management to private software companies. It is a worrying that whilst
recruitment within the Ministries, Departments and Agencies are on hold
on paper, there are suggestions of back door recruitment practices which
are unknown to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission which ultimately
find space on the pay roll. It is very possible that when a serious
labour audit is done, the 70% figure reported to be the total toll on
our internally generated revenues may actually be substantially lower.
3. Undertake a proper alignment of functions to save money. The
prioritisation of sectors that are revenue-consuming more than their
revenue-generating ones must cease. In fact, there are essential sectors
that are underfunded in favour of sectors that generate little revenue,
if at all, and are non-essential administrative sectors.
• For example in 2011, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture,
the country’s second income earner received the 9th largest budget
allocation, and tourism, the country’s fourth money maker came in 25th
place (of 35 MDAs) receiving a small allocation of GHS 17,225,167,
beaten by the Ministry of Information, another administrative sector
that receives an allocation almost twice the size of the Ministry of
Tourism’s, and the Electoral Commission in 2011. Another sector that
might have its mandate leaned is the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture
which for the year 2012 stated one activity item which was to
coordinate the National Festival of Arts and Culture. Between its role
in settling disputes and promoting culture, the Ministry of Chieftaincy
and Culture can be taken up by the Judicial sectors and the tourism
sector and allowing Government to potentially redirect GHS 30,338,694 of
which 89% went towards wages and salaries.
• It is also gravely worrying that the DVLA that has vast
amounts of opportunities to be a money earner is underperforming due to
the subventions it receives from the government. In 2011 the DVLA came
top in terms of allocation to personal emoluments (GHS 2,089,155).
Meanwhile it was only able to generate (GHS 1,832,277).
• Why should an administrative sector such as the Ministry of
Information & Media Relations receive GHS 100,120,293 in the 2014
Budget, while the Ministry of Transport, an infrastructural sector, is
receiving GHS89, 949,128?
• Again in the 2014 Budget Statement, the Office of
Government Machinery is receiving an increase of almost 12% to its
budget allocation over 2013. However, it would seem that some of the
functions this agency intends to take on could be done by other MDAs.
For example, scholarships for second cycle students and students
studying abroad can be administered by the Ministry of Education. Hence
it would seem that this budget could be reasonably decreased.
4. Political and economic Decentralisation of governance in
order to reduce the burden on central government. The central government
must begin to shelve the role of directly recruiting and paying
teachers, doctors, nurses, from Accra. This function should be
undertaken by district assemblies and metropolitan authorities.
Respectfully yours,
Franklin Cudjoe
Founding President & CEO, IMANI
www.imanighana.com
CC: Hon. Paul Victor Obeng
Minister, Employment and Labour Relations
CEO, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission
Source: Dailygraphic
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