Over 29,000 'ghost names' on government's pay roll uncovered

Over 29,000 employees in the Ghana’s payroll cannot be accounted for, Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffuor has stated.

This follows a biometric registration process of all pensioners and public sector employees in at least five regions of the country.

This was revealed by the Finance Minister in his presentation of the fourth budget statement under the theme: "Infrastructure development and accelerated growth and job creation."

The revelation comes at a time when public sector wage bill has shot up under the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure.

The minister reiterated government’s commitment to implement fully the Single Spine policy and address the distortions in public wages despite its huge expenditure on the consolidated fund.

To correlate salaries with productivity the minister stated government will in the 2012 financial year conduct a public sector productivity survey that will promote and manage public sector salaries.

Dr. Duffour chided the New Patriotic Party for saddling the NDC government with huge arrears to contractors, saying “through diligence and proper planning” substantial part of the debt has been paid.

According to him, a total of GHS 3.1 billion has been paid to contractors with an amount of GHS 1.1 billion left to pay.

He said the government will in the coming year invest heavily in infrastructural development across the country.

For Ghana to meet its gaping infrastructural deficit, the Minister said a total of $1.6 billion per year will be needed.

He said the country would rely heavily on donor support –loans and grants- to complement the limited internally generated revenue to be used in infrastructural development.

The minister touted government’s achievement in maintaining a stable macro-economic stability which he said has been unprecedented in several years.

He stated the NDC government’s commitment to remove schools under trees is on course and would be fulfilled; assuring that the general standards of living of Ghanaians will be improved greatly.

Source: myjoyonline.com

IEA must come clean on GNA Story-FPACC

Click HERE to read the original report from IEA website as of April 27th, 2009:

FPACC by this statement corroborates GNA story on the abuse of Incumbency during the 2008 Election attributed to IEA. It is rather unfortunate that a reputable institution like the institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) will shy away from the statement that they have issued and published on their website regarding the conduct of the 2008 election. Any Institution established to promote good governance must be ready at all times to stand for the truth and nothing but the truth.
It will be recalled that GNA published a story captioned “IEA slams NPP for “abuse” of incumbency in Elections 2008” on 15 August, 2011 and was published on various Ghanaian media including the Ghanaweb. Not long after the publication, Institute of Economic Affairs issued a statement denying the report attributed to them.

For IEA to have quickly recanted and pulled from its web site a story it had published sometime in 2009 leaves one to wonder why such an institute should be taken as a serious and reliable one.

After a forensic investigation of the IEA website, FPACC is able to pull this story and is reproducing the webpage that has inexplicably vanished from the IEA website for the benefit of the Ghanaian public.
Visit: http://www.fpacc.org for the webpage and the whole story
By this, we are calling on IEA to come clean and stop portraying the GNA and any entity as concocting a story and attributing it to IEA.
Ghana deserves better.
FPACC