‘Public sector payment structure not sustainable’

Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson, Founding Dean of the University of Cape Coast’s Faculty of Law, has expressed the need for reforms in the public sector payment structure.

He said the current structure of compensation for the public sector, which employs about 800,000 people and accounts for 70 per cent of tax revenues “is an untenable and an unsustainable arrangement”.

The professor, a 1978 Mfantsipim old boy, was speaking at Mfantsipim Foundation’s inaugural “Dwen Hwe Kan Lectures” in Accra on the theme: “Nation-Building and National Interest: A Regime for determining public sector Compensation.”

“The public sector compensation issue matters because the more money is paid out as wages and salaries and other remuneration, the less that is available for infrastructural development and so forth,” he said.

Prof Bondzi-Simpson said disparities in the payment of people with the same qualifications and job descriptions in the public sector promote intra-sector comparisons and wage agitations.

He said the qualifications that determine the jobs should determine the salaries and not the location of the employees, adding that reforms in would yield a productivity and profitability bonus for government and create a true single spine devoid of intra-public sector comparisons.

“The public sector should not undermine itself. There should be some internal logic because the public sector is one whole with different parts supporting…Ghana and supporting the private sector to do its work,” he said.

Prof Bondzi-Simpson cited an extract from the Ghana Public Sector Job Analysis Handbook which showed inconsistencies in job factors among the various sectors of the public service.

For instance while the handbook showed a high rating of the consequence of error for persons who work in the Public Policy, Planning Services, Administration and Related Services, it also showed that the knowledge required for employment in that field was low.

The annual “Dwen, Hwe, Kan” lectures is a platform created by Mfantsipim foundation to consolidate the Mfantsipim brand by convening renowned Mfantsipim old boys to discuss national and global issues on leadership.