2014 Budget: 10% pay cut for Presidency and govt appointees
Government appointees have agreed to take a 10 percent pay cut to help bring the country’s wage bill down for 2014.
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Announcing the move in the 2014 budget statement, the Finance Minister, Mr Seth Tekper said the amount to be deducted by the Controller and Accountant General, would be paid into a fund to be dedicated to focus on maternal health under the CHIP programme (Community-Based Health Planning Services).
He said the decision was voluntarily taken by the President, John Dramani Mahama, his Vice, Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur, Ministers of state and government appointees.
This, the Finance Minister said was to demonstrate leadership in the spirit of the partnership of the Ho Forum.
Compensation for public sector workers
Government early this year held a forum with organised labour in the Volta Regional capital of Ho where it explained that the single spine pay policy was imposing severe fiscal strain on the budget.
At that forum, it was agreed to conclude wage negotiations before the budget for the ensuing year was presented to parliament.
But as was explained by the Finance Minister, negotiations have not been concluded as of now and that government employers and organised labour were still continuing negotiations on the national daily minimum wage and public sector wage adjustments.
Mr Tekper said government believed that public sector compensation should not put stress on the fiscal envelop and that the budget must must leave room for infrastructure development and other priority programmes as was recently stated eloquently by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
He said the social partners of government were committed to removing leakages and wastages in public pay administration and bring wage bill to sustainable levels to re-align budget to national priorities.
This, he said was aimed at moving towards the ECOWAS convergence criteria of 35 percent of wages to tax revenue.
The Finance Minister said whilst acknowledging the positive aspects of retaining public sector staff and improving their productivity, the single spine pay policy was imposing severe fiscal strain on the budget.
"To demonstrate leadership in the spirit of the partnership from Ho", the President, his Vice, Minister and and appointees have agreed to take the 10percent pay cut for 2014, Mr Tekper said.