Salary Claims 60% Budget

Government is currently spending about 60 percent of its budget to pay workers on its payroll.The Controller and Accountant General, Christian Tettey Sottie, who disclosed this when he interacted with civil and public servants as part of his three-day tour of the Upper East Region, said there are 367,000 names on government’s payroll, noting that “all these names are on different structures making it extremely difficult to work with.”

He gave the assurance that government will not compromise its commitment to ensuring that workers on its payroll are not only given fair wages but also paid on time. According to him, there are two channels through which a worker’s salary is processed before being paid. These are the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Data Base. He said the integration of all salary workers falls under the Ministries, Departments and Agencies so when one is employed it is his or her department that must provide all the relevant information such as when he was employed, salary scale and promotion among others.

Mr. Sottie said his outfit, which is not the employer, only takes the information provided and scrutinizes it to be sure that it falls in line with government’s policy. He noted that when the information is certified, it is then passed on to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for funds for payment. He explained that discrepancies in salaries such as delay in payment, shortfalls and deductions are not done by his office but from the offices of employees. He asked salaried workers to first of all, check with their departments whenever they encounter any problem with their salaries instead of rushing to radio stations and raining insults on his outfit. He said however that government is working hard to develop the single spine pay structure, where all irregularities associated with salaries would be a thing of the past.