Government Is Broke

Information reaching Daily Guide indicates that the Ghana government is broke, and finding it difficult to meet its remunerational obligations to workers, many of whom are as at today still expecting their salaries from the single largest employer of labour in the country.

The unusual trend has prompted hushed discussions among distressed staffers as they pose rhetorical questions about what exactly is happening in the system.


Payroll staff in some departments were said to be busy yesterday working on salary vouchers but their ability to have salaries hit workers’ accounts before the Republic Day holiday on July 1, is remote.


It is a worrying trend worsened by the migration of some public workers onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), as government is saddled with the extra burden of finding more money to contain the demand of the new salary regime.


With more public-sector workers agitating to be put onto the SSSS, there are more difficult days ahead for government which must oblige this request or face the wrath of this important human resource segment of the country.


Government owes hundreds of contractors across the country, a situation which has stalled many projects with money from the state nowhere in sight.

Daily Guide learnt that some public and civil servants have not received their June salaries till date, though the month ends today June 30, 2011. Cheques at some ministries, departments and agencies suggest that June salaries have been delayed though last Thursday June 23 was ‘pay day’.


Though the workers have received their June pay slips to cash monies at their respective banks, they were disappointed to find out that the salaries have not hit their bank accounts.


As at December 2009, there were 403,391 Ghanaians on government payroll, according to data from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, released by the World Bank Accra office.


Indications are that the government is ‘broke’ and therefore does not have enough money to settle the several thousands of civil and public servants.


DAILY GUIDE sources at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, which facilitates and pays salaries of workers on behalf of government, confirmed that workers of the department have not received their salaries for this month. The sources said they are not even sure whether the workers would get their pay today.

Over 250,000 teachers employed by the Ghana Education Service had also not received their June pay when Daily Guide contacted some of them yesterday. A civil servant who works with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning expressed disgust over the non-payment of salaries, adding that he does not know how he will fare during the four-day holiday since he was virtually cash-strapped.


He added that most of his colleagues at the ministry were frustrated and disappointed at the development, questioning what could be wrong.


Meanwhile, Abdul Hakim Ahmed, Media Liaison Officer at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning told Daily Guide on telephone yesterday that the Director of Budgets at the ministry has transferred all funds relating to salaries of government workers “so the workers should check with their respective banks”.


However, the argument is that the Controller and Accountant-General Department is the entity that effects payment on behalf of government to all civil and some public servants, and therefore responsible for payments into the bank accounts of the workers and not the Ministry of Finance.


Sources at the Ministry of Finance told Daily Guide that staff were working on salaries yesterday and that no civil servant would be paid before tomorrow’s holiday and that the earliest they could do so would be the close of next week.