" If you pay peanuts you get monkeys" is a
statement that has caused angst and discordant
noises in an otherwise very cordial relationship
between me and all current media partners in
the last week . After months of dithering and
lack of clarity I went on the 'offensive' and
decided to test my worth in Ghana cedis for
this and other 'pearls of wisdom ?' in my post
retirement life .
My spat with my ' benefactors' coincided with
the biggest and most significant victory of the
Black Stars over Egypt. Basking in the reflected
glory of the gargantuan rollover of the
Pharaohs, I was distracted momentarily by the
observation that GNPC had oiled our now
certain passage to Brazil by dipping into our oil
wealth to offer US $ 15, 000 each to our boys ,
even as some " ahooyaa " people moaned. ( I
wonder if they rejoiced too )
Two events quickly brought me crashing down
from the dizzy heights of the soccer victory.
Firstly , the ongoing strike by CLOGSAG made
sure I could not assist family folks to fast track
the acquisition of new biometric travel docs
because the Passport Office was closed . Then
the Junior Okyeame Ofosu Kwakye crowed that
GHS 11 billion nearly all of the revenues from
the taxes extorted from hard working
Ghanaians , was to be paid as wages to those on
" aban" payroll (Ghosts as well as the Quick)
CLOGSAG' s beef was to replicate the same
refrain that has led other people paid from the
public purse to down their pens , chalks and
stethoscopes , namely the failure of
government to pay ' the market premium '
allowances elements of the Single Spine Salary
Scheme . Please note that the strikes are no
longer about the payment of the basic
Quadruple S, which is being enjoyed, but the
clawing back of the allowances that determines
the relative importance on the employment
ladder .
Government has admitted that after paying the
QS to the workers , Ghana 's public purse is
emptied out completely and absolutely ; there
is simply no 'kudi' left to do the things that
will improve our lives and for which we are
doling out all of our money to those on the
public pay- roll.
The money collected to make the NHIS has
been filched to pay wages. The capitation fees
nourishing our children under the School
Feeding Programme have gone into public
sector wages . Our much touted
decentralization has stopped in its tracks
because the portion of the public purse that
should go to the MMDAs has not left Accra for
several months cos it has all gone into paying
wages . TALK TAX is not putting our money
where our mouths are chatting "yabe yabe " cos
that money too has gone into the public wage
bill .
Paying workers well is very good and
commendable. But then there is always the
other side of the equation, namely "What are
you paying them for ?" Unfortunately, in Ghana
we seem to be concerned only with the answer
part of the equation, namely the Pay and
forget that it is only when we do the analytic
work on the left side well and diligently that
we arrive at the correct answer. We simply
cannot address Good Pay without Productivity.
The QS INPUT OF GOOD PAY MUST YIELD THE
OUTPUT OF HIGH PRODUCTIVITY THAT FUNDS
THE HIGH WAGE BILL . If we are spending
GHS 11 billion in paying public workers better ,
we are entitled to ask , nay demand , insist, and
ultimately ensure that the work being done is
deserving of the better pay. Instead, we have
put ourselves in the untenable position of not
being able to measure workers output at all ,
because all the money has been spent on
wages and there is nothing left to do the work ,
let alone determine the worth of it.
The Government of President John Mahama
needs to stop playing "afraid men and women"
when it comes to tackling and solving the
equation of Public Sector Pay & Productivity
( the other triangular Ps whose neglect stops
the achievement of the more sexy Public ,
Private Partnership) . After all they are also
" chopping plenty " from GHS 11 billion and
must stop fiddling with pre – paid meters when
they should be getting on with ensuring that
we are getting real and quantifiable value and
benefits from " blowing our cash " on the
implementers of GYEEDA and those who
'investigate their misdeeds'
There is no merit in crying that the QS should
never have been implemented . The fact is that
the QS genie is out of the bottle and it is a
good thing to be proud that we can pay better
to attract better quality and more competent
folks into the service of our nation.
For nearly five years now , President Mahama
has been part of Power of this country . He has
made several speeches and pronouncements in
that time. Yet , I cannot recall a single major
speech that has taken on the issue of making
our Public Sector more productive (including
Article 71 folks ) and delivering measurable
outputs that show that the investment of the
people 's taxes in SSSS is yielding tangible
improvements in our overall welfare and well
being.
Instead of moaning about mounting wage bills,
let the Government start looking at precisely
and exactly what each and every single person
that is paid from the public purse is delivering
to earn their pay. We will soon find out that
we can have our cake and eat it by having to
pay fewer people to achieve the same or better
output than now . Trimming down a bloated
public service has been one of the sacred
mantras of public sector reforms in the 25
years I have been around. Doing it has always
eluded us like the scarlet pimpernel , even
when PAMSCAD was introduced as a sweetener .
How many of us remember the standard joke
about public sector pay, namely" "Government
pretends it is paying us and we pretend we are
working " It used to be quite funny and a
readymade excuse for doing nothing. Now that
QS has done away with the Government' s
pretence, the workers are still pretending to be
working . That I am afraid is a sick joke that
must be wiped off our increasingly suffering
faces .
Let the example of the Black Stars be
manifested in the output delivered by those
now enjoying QS . For now, I am afraid in the
match between Public Pay and Commensurate
Productive Output, the score for now is
SINGLE SPINE 6 : GHANA 1.
QS has increased PUBLC PAY several fold whilst
PRODUCTIVITY has stood still. But it is possible
to square the match and get Productivity to
score more goals and even achieve victory for
a wealthier Ghana on the away goal rule . How ,
this can be done ; will have to wait another
week .
Glossary : QS: SINGLE SPINE SALARY SCHEME
( quadruple S ); CLOGSAG Civil and Local
Government Staff Association of Ghana ;
MMDAs :Metropolitan , Municipal & District
Assemblies; PAMSCAD Programme of Action to
Mitigate Social Consequences of Adjustment ;
GYEEDA( no need to expatiate)
Charles Wereko- Brobby
CHIEF POLICY ANALYST , Ghana Inst for Public
Policy Options , GIPPO
Email: tarzan @eyetarzan. org
