Over 99.7% of public service workers on SSSS

At a meet-the-press series  in Accra yesterday, the Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Mr George Smith-Graham, said the migration onto the SSSS had come at great cost to the state.

A little over two years after its implementation, the country’s public sector wage bill has more than tripled.

“It increased from GH¢2.5 billion in 2009 to GH¢8.5 billion, inclusive of arrears, in 2012. The 2012 wage bill represents 68.2 per cent of tax revenue, 40.8 per cent of expenditures and 11.9 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” Mr Smith-Graham said.

The SSSS was introduced in 2010 to be implemented in phases over a period of five years.

A major component is the development of and migration onto the SSSS, which has taken three years to implement.

Other components are the harmonisation and standardisation of allowances/negotiation of allowances, the development of a mechanism for and payment of market premium and inducement allowances and performance management, monitoring and evaluation-linkage of pay to productivity.

Mr Smith-Graham said total compensation, including basic salary, allowances, salary arrears, pensions, gratuities and social security contributions, rose from GH¢2.9 billion to GH¢9.1 billion.

He said the GH¢2.9 billion represented 60.08 per cent of tax revenue in 2009, while the GH¢9.1 billion represented 72.3 per cent of tax revenue in 2012.

“Of the 2012 compensation payments, SSSS arrears in respect of 2010/2011 amounted to GH¢1.8 billion. Thus, out of the GH¢12.4 billion tax revenue collected in 2012, 72.3 per cent was used to settle the compensation bill of about 600,000 public service workers and pensioners,” he stated.

On market premium which has become a thorny issue, Mr Smith-Graham said the policy on market premium would be implemented under the SSSS to attract and retain critical skills.

“To avoid abuse of this facility, clear guidelines for identifying jobs which qualify for market premiums will be developed and reviewed periodically. Those guidelines are, however, awaiting Cabinet approval and issuance of a White Paper to cover its implementation. The FWSC is, therefore, not implementing market premium now,” he stated.

Mr Graham did not delve much into the current strike by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) but said the process of resolving some of the issues was still ongoing.

“Using strikes as pressure tactics to obtain one’s pound of flesh is not the way forward,” he stated.

The Director of Economic Planning, Dr Iddrisu Alhassan, said the rising wage bill was alarming, adding that sustainable ways of managing the public sector pay roll was being sought to manage the situation.

“We are mindful of ensuring that the wage bill is sustainable. It’s in the interest of both the government and unions to ensure sustainability of the wage bill,” he stated.

To ensure the sustainability of the wage bill, he said it must be managed within the constraints of the budget, otherwise the development of other sectors of the economy would be sacrificed.

Story by Naa Lamiley Bentil