Late staff data causes delay in new salary

Accra, May 22 GNA - The effort by Government to correct salary distortions of Public Health Sector workers as well as the new job evaluation and placement is being hampered by the late submission of staff data from the Ghana Health Service, Teaching Hospitals and Heads of agencies under the Ministry of Health.

A statement on Monday signed by Mr Amponsah-Bediako, Government Spokesman on Social Services, requested all the Heads of the institutions to exercise personal supervision over the submission of their staff data to speed up the process to enable the workers to enjoy the new salary in June, 2006.

It said to be able to effect changes on the Government Payroll it was critical to convert each health worker from the existing Ghana Universal Salary Structure levels to the new salary level steps before assimilating onto the National Payroll.

The statement said this could not be done unless the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MFEP) authorised the Controller and Accountant General=92s Department to do so after receiving the total cost involved in the exercise.

It said the MOH needed to determine the total cost of implementing the changes before requesting authorisation from the MFEP.

The statement also noted that the MOH had contracted a team of independent consultants to quickly map up all the Public Sector Health Workers onto the recommended salary bands and pay scales and calculate the cost to enable the MOH to ask for financial clearance.

It said the delay being encountered had been communicated to all the stakeholders including the Heads of agencies, members of the Negotiation Team, the Mapping Consultants, the Health Workers Group, the Controller and Accountant-General, Director of the MOH and members of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Additional Duty Hours Allowance.