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The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has proposed the downsizing of the public sector workers to reduce the high expenditure by government. This comes days after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) alleged that the country�s economy is in 'tatters' due to the high public debt; a claim government has denied. However, speaking on the state of the Ghanaian economy at a press briefing on Thursday, Senior Economist with the IEA, Dr. John Kwakye said the country�s huge wage bill is a major contributor to the high spending by government and must be reduced through the cleaning up of the payroll system. Pointing out some of the factors which indicate that the country is facing financial challenges, Dr. Kwakye stated that �we are cash strapped. In other words, you can see that GETFund is not being paid, contractors are not being paid, workers are demanding their salary arrears and the government cannot meet them so they don�t have enough money.� He further mentioned that government is failing to meet these financial demands because �our revenue base or our expenditure is huge� and therefore suggested that government should reduce �these and putting it more into capital and less consumption and those consumptions are of course coming from the salaries.�