Thinking Aloud: Time to rethink
Last Tuesday, the Daily Graphic reported that the state has for the past three years spent USD5,500 as monthly rent for the Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Ms Lauretta Lamptey.
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The story became an instant hit, setting the agenda for most of the radio stations. There were many who wondered why the state could support such opulence, especially the part of the story which indicated that the lady is now in a hotel which costs USD456.25 daily, at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer.
Beyond the allegation that the lady had demanded diverse variations to renovation works on the official bungalow allocated to the CHRAJ Commissioner, which had resulted in delays in completing the work for her occupation, she cannot be held culpable, since the bulk of the problem lies with the lack of public policy on such matters.
The case of the CHRAJ Commissioner will not be the last unless we are determined to deal firmly with the matter of accommodation for public officials as part of their conditions of service.
When Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom was the Minister of Public Sector Reforms, government initiated a policy to pay public servants commensurate salaries so that they could take care of their accommodation and transportation needs. Indeed, the current government announced that public servants, including ministers, were to be given loans to purchase their own vehicles, but nothing has been heard of the policy two years into its administration.
When ordinary public service workers complain of poor wages and salaries, these senior public servants equally complain of poor remuneration as if the free accommodation and vehicles are not part of their conditions of service.
The voices raised against Ms Lamptey were raised against Mr Sylvester Mensah of the National Health Insurance Authority, against the National Petroleum Authority under this government and were raised against the Energy Commission during the previous administration.
Until we firmly come up with policies on comprehensive remuneration, we would skirt around the issue by baselessly maligning and attacking individuals when the real problem is the absence of a policy in that direction. In the words of Chinua Achebe ”but, what is the use of bending your neck at me like the chicken to the pot when its real enemy is not the pot in which it cooks, not even the fire which cooks it, but the knife.”
Indeed, the recent heated discussions about corporate governance relating to corrupt managements and corruptible directors including the payment of huge per diem to directors who travel for trainings and conferences, are rooted in the lack of clear policies as to how much must be paid in consonance with directives from the Ministry of Finance.
Some of us have been made to believe that the payment of per diem is regulated by the Ministry of Finance and that the amount depends on the particular country based on the cost of living index.
Thus, for those tutored in civil service culture, when they travel to high expenditure countries where the per diem cannot even pay for their hotel bills, they opt for abated per diem so that the hotel bills are settled by the state.
So when rumours circulate that management and board members on overseas training receive full per diem beyond payment for their accommodation and meals, you wonder if such payments are bribes or otherwise. No wonder some board meetings are held overseas although the interests of the institutions are based in Accra.
And what about public officials who travel on first and business classes when what the state can offer is economy class? The irony is that these same officials, when they are invited by governments who offer economy class, neither complain nor turn down the offers.
There must be one remuneration policy in the country such that all state employees, including those serving in the government, from the lowest to the highest, would have a common package, and the difference will come only from the levels depending on the base pay.
We must quantify all the benefits available and put a monetary measure on them.
Where public officials have to be accommodated and transported, we must decide the nature of accommodation and means of transport. Indeed, some of us would have wished that we were given loans to purchase our vehicles and paid maintenance allowance instead of official vehicles for which we pay tax and may never own, just as we are paid rent allowance in lieu of accommodation.
We should stop moaning, rethink and refrain from maliciously and baselessly attacking public officials for merely enjoying their conditions of service. We must insist on functional policies to eliminate such needless expenses.
