Salaries of public service workers who do not have up-to-date personnel records and bank accounts are to be suspended, the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, has said.
The move is part of measures being taken by the government to sustain the new pay policy.
Other measures being instituted by the government to contain the country’s rising wage bill include the implementation of an electronic salary payment voucher (eSPV), the continuation of headcount, the validation of Social Security (SSNIT) numbers and the migration of all subverted agencies onto the mechanised payroll.
Presenting the 2015 mid-year review and supplementary estimates to Parliament yesterday, Mr Terkper said, “To ensure effectiveness of the payroll and Human Resources Management Information System reforms (HRMIS), the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) has been directed by the Ministry of Finance to stop processing the payroll for any agency and management unit that does not provide an update of the monthly report that is now given to all MDAs/MMDAs on government’s payroll.”
Mr Terkper was in Parliament to make a request for supplementary estimates of GH¢865,789,380, in accordance with Article 179 (8) of the 1992 Constitution and Standing Order 143 of Parliament.
He told Parliament that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) would soon commence the administrative process for negotiations on categories two and three allowances and the base pay for 2016.
“In the context of negotiating within budgetary constraints which have been agreed to by all stakeholders, as well as the need to reduce transaction cost of negotiations, there is the need to ensure that these categories of allowances are negotiated within the service classifications as stipulated in the Government White Paper on the Single Spine Pay Policy,” he said.
Mr Terkper also said that the biometric database of the e-zwich system would be used to validate and maintain a single identity of employees at the point of payment of salaries at the banks, explaining that it would further strengthen existing controls in payroll management.
He added that the aim of the exercise was to avoid any double payment and eliminate other types of fraud, in order to minimise the size of the payroll. At an investment forum in Germany on January 20, 2015, President John Mahama said, “As a result of the implementation of a new wage policy, we suffered a wage spiral and wage to tax revenues went almost as high as 70 per cent. Public Financial Management Laws
Nonetheless, Mr Terkper said that the Ministry of Finance had already developed a public financial management (PFM) reform strategy and was leading the development of an overarching public financial management law, which would underpin Ghana’s ongoing PFM reforms.
He said the PFM law had been designed to address persistent weaknesses in the budget processes and promote fiscal discipline, transparency and accountability, adding that the existing financial legislations would be revised to reflect the new PFM law. Electronic ticketing on buses
The Finance Minister also stated that the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Roads and Highways, was set to introduce electronic forms of payments on the next generation of public buses, indicating that some of such buses had already arrived and were awaiting commissioning.
The two ministries would also complete the ongoing RFP process for installing electronic road tolls plazas, all of which are aimed at ensuring the effective utilisation of budgetary resources.
He further indicated that as part of compliance measures on financial management and control of expenditure, the CAGD would implement the B-Tracking (Bank Tracking), e-Travel Card and e-Fuel Card systems
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