<<Print>>

Mr Ben Arthur, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), has asserted that Internally Generated Funds (IGF) are public funds.

He has, therefore, asked State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) to seek clearance before utilising them.

He said seeking clearance of the FWSC was a legally stipulated requirement that must be adhered to, especially by self-accounting State enterprises that depended on public funds, including IGF for all compensation-related decisions.

Mr Arthur was speaking at a workshop organised by the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) in Accra to discuss compliance challenges of specified entities and solutions to remedy them.

He said the FWSC, among others, was mandated to, “undertake negotiations where compensation is financed from public funds” and “coordinate, manage and monitor collective bargaining processes in, which Government is the direct or indirect employer.”

He said it was wrong for SOEs to assume that they were independent of the FWSC’s oversight of compensation budget and decisions when they generated their own funds.

“The funds still belong to the people of Ghana,” he stressed.

Mr Arthur observed that disparities in salaries across the public sector had fuelled numerous industrial actions over the years and said efforts were being made to address the challenges.

The Director-General of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Mr Edward Boateng, said only 77 SOEs out of 132 submitted audited financials; with most submitting after the deadline had elapsed.

He said only 20 Specified Entities submitted draft accounts, with only 32 submitting management accounts.

He expressed disappointment at why some high-profile institutions could not comply with the relevant regulatory framework within, which they operated.

Other speakers at the workshop were the Minister of Public Enterprise, Mr Joseph Cudjo; the Controller & Accountant-General, Mr Kwesi Bosompem; and the Director-General of the Internal Audit Agency, Dr Eric Oduro Osae.

SIGA, the Ministry of Finance, the Internal Audit Agency, and the Audit Service, and the FWSC are advancing the mandate of payroll monitoring in public institutions on matters related to salaries, wages, grading, classification, job analysis and job evaluation.