Terkper: Oil revenue not spent on wages

Minister of Finance Seth Emmanuel Terkper has discounted reports that Ghana’s oil revenue were spent on payment of public sector wages.

He said even the Petroleum Revenue Management Act will not allow such an action to be carried out.

Speaking at the opening day of the 2nd National Forum of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) in Takoradi, Mr Terkper said the oil revenues were channeled into capital expenditure.

“It is erroneous to say that we spent the oil money on wages,” he underscored.

“It is not true because the Petroleum Revenue Management Act is very strict.”

There have reports that oil revenues have been expended on public sector wages in order to sustain the SSPP, introduced in 2010.

But Mr Terkper said even “the regular income that we generate particularly from GRA went into meeting the other expenditures that are high”.