Wage bill reduced by 13% after clearing 'ghost names' - Mona Quartey

Deputy Finance Minister, Mona Quartey, says public sector wage bill has dropped from 70% of government revenue to 57% after a rigorous process to remove 'ghost names' or non-existing bank accounts from government payroll.

Discussing the 2015 budget on the topic “The Layman’s Budget” on PM Express, a current affairs programme hosted by Nana Ansah Kwao IV on Multi TV-Joy News channel last Wednesday, the minister said government was bent on cleaning the wage bill even further.

Ms Quartey said the Controller and Accountant General's Department, which is leading efforts to clean the wage bill was doing a good job.

Government has been battling a ballooning public sector wage bill in what analysts believe could sink Ghana's wobbly economy.

The wages of about 650,000 public workers rob other sectors of the economy of essential investment and resources.

Speaking on PM Express, Ms Quartey said although the wage bill has dropped significantly, “there is the need to mobilise resources and control expenditure”.

According to her, government is still working to stabilise the economy through mobilisation of resources through the consumption tax.

Speaking on the 2015 budget, Economist and Political Analyst, Dr. Theophilus Richardson, an Economist and Political Analyst, who was also a panelist on the show, said the budget should have addressed the basic economic needs of the citizenry.

Richardson is certain the economy has lingered on for far too long and that managers of the economy were not doing well to improve the economy.

On the issue of expenditure control, Ms Quartey mentioned that in order to improve the livelihood of the Ghanaians there is the need to increase taxes sometimes to give the citizenry a better living.

She noted that government sometimes make certain tax adjustments to enhance the economy.

“Where we can give as government, we give…where we have to take a little bit in order to give a better future we do…we up it a bit. So if we maintain the status quo how do we improve, how do we add on power generation," she quizzed.

Richardson also said it was absurd for fuel prices to be increased domestically when crude oil prices on the world market have been reduced.