‘Single Spine Salary is the headache to Ghana's economy’

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• concern member 12 years ago

  If you place your proirities well salaries would never be a challeged to our econmy.
  be sincere with yourself.

  If you place your proirities well salaries would never be a challeged to our econmy.
  be sincere with yourself.

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• Foreigner 12 years ago

  The percentage of the budget going just to salaries is the biggest threat to Ghana's economy. There is a spill over effect with the government needing to borrow more money, for items that should be funded from the domestic b ...
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  The percentage of the budget going just to salaries is the biggest threat to Ghana's economy. There is a spill over effect with the government needing to borrow more money, for items that should be funded from the domestic budget. Ghana's political parties are too immature to address this issue. This affects the currency, etc, etc. Staff need to be reduced and/or salaries capped/reduced. It's that simple. Starting in Sept, over 82% of the budget is just for salaries. That is ridiculous. I tried to find some comparable data on developed countries on the net and found out that the US spends less than 10% of their federal budget on federal salaries (12.8% if you include the military).
  
  Who is wanting to invest in a country when the country can't afford upkeep of their infrastructure, let alone adding to it.

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• They Say They Say 12 years ago

  The only politician on the horizon who has the zeal, the strength and know-how to macro manage the economy is Mr. Nduom.

  The only politician on the horizon who has the zeal, the strength and know-how to macro manage the economy is Mr. Nduom.

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• Sankofa 12 years ago

  The SSSS was recklessly and irresponsibly introduced by Kufuor as he was leaving office. The Mills admin had no choice but to implement it.

  The SSSS was recklessly and irresponsibly introduced by Kufuor as he was leaving office. The Mills admin had no choice but to implement it.

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• Concerned 12 years ago

  Why do you say Mills admin had no choice but to implement it? I am really surprised by your assumption, since Mills refused to use the Flagstaff House built by K4... so Mills intentionally left a $50Million investment to rot, ...
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  Why do you say Mills admin had no choice but to implement it? I am really surprised by your assumption, since Mills refused to use the Flagstaff House built by K4... so Mills intentionally left a $50Million investment to rot, but when it came to SSSS, you believe his hands were suddenly tied and he HAD to implement it.
  
  I agree that the K4 plan was probably not complete and filled with similar bad parts as the plan the Mills/Mahama admin ultimately enacted, but you are delusional if you think you can give Mills a free pass on this mess. As president, and the power that actually implemented SSSS, he/they are the ones who have to take ownership of the mess. It is truely unbelievable that any gov't will enact a policy such as SSSS, then later complain that it is too expensive... did they not do a cost analysis. Could they not do the simple math behind (old salary-new salary)*#civil_servants - this blame game is silly

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• J Ananga 12 years ago

  I am now seeing economics in this article instead of the shallow and unguarded statements made by some commentators on the economy. When government borrowing goes to finance infrastructure and wages, the economy is bound to f ...
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  I am now seeing economics in this article instead of the shallow and unguarded statements made by some commentators on the economy. When government borrowing goes to finance infrastructure and wages, the economy is bound to face these kind of pressures it is currently facing. Workers have to justify the increased salaries they are now enjoying under the SSSS. They have to increase productivity rather than going on strike. Again if the infrastructure is revamped then this would enhance production and productivity in the long run and we should see the benefits of that. Having said that repayment of the debt, be it domestic or foreign should not put much strain on the economy provided of course we utilize the productive base of the economy that is being laid by way of infrastructural development. Government borrowing therefore is not always bad as others would want us to believe.

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• gghanaba 12 years ago

  Yes to add to that, if borrowing goes to social infrastructure, it amout to the same debt burden. Ghana must begin to learn a simple basic rule.... Government should borrow to invest. The borrowing for gas infrastructure wa g ...
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  Yes to add to that, if borrowing goes to social infrastructure, it amout to the same debt burden. Ghana must begin to learn a simple basic rule.... Government should borrow to invest. The borrowing for gas infrastructure wa good, but share should float immediately to recoup the funds for another major project. exampla apparel and other similar areas. these industries if well maintaned and run properly will fuel growth. Government should start distancing themselves from power water, oil and gas and consentrate on looking after health, education and social policies. those areas are for investors. if the government becomes investor, curruption will never cease. Also Government arms have to be stripped down and powers given to agencies and local assemblies. U K for example built the country on credit but did not owe the social amenities. it freed the governmentto do the work properly. "Government should stop the business of business and leave business for businesses" by AGI chairman.
  Effective date warehouse and de-duplication with effective laws will remove Ghost names by far. Government trying to curbe the problen in a conventional way is dispeakable. Strategy needs to be in place and Government going private for strategic advise like the help for fire investigators could be a smarter move to halt the rot!

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• K Man 12 years ago

  The budget deficit is increasing quarter on quarter. This is unsustainable especially given the rates at which amounts are being borrowed from abroad and now domestically (treasury bills). Robbing Peter to pay Paul in ortder ...
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  The budget deficit is increasing quarter on quarter. This is unsustainable especially given the rates at which amounts are being borrowed from abroad and now domestically (treasury bills). Robbing Peter to pay Paul in ortder to meet salary and public sector commitments without dealing with the underlying issues of increasing income compared to expenses and reducing the expense base is dangerous.
  
  This is unsustainable and we run the risk of bankruptcy. Creative ways to increase revenues and reduce the debt has to be the priority. Do we need to import goods we can produce locally, can government streamline its spending and be cost efficient, reduce corruption and employ a thought through tax system where local companies such as Spintex are aren't taxed into closure due to not being able to compete with cheap foreign goods flooding the market, where we can complete the majority funded(by counter parties) infrastructure plans with foreign countries/institutions, which we cannot because all "spare" money is being used to meet debt obligations.
  
  This "everything is ok" nonsense is not helping Ghana, this should be about Ghana first not politiking.
  
  Government needs to back up its talk and start to consider a serious plan of action before the country goes bust...if you live on credit day by day to sustain and pay off other debt without thoughts of how to move out of the debt cycle then it's only a matter of time until the inevitable.

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• K Man 12 years ago

  and this time there is no HIPIC to save us

  and this time there is no HIPIC to save us

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• Pelicles 12 years ago

  Stealing from the government coffers should stop and that will end the nation's headache. Single Spine Salary draining our coffers is a stupid excuse from the government. If MPs can be given $50,000 every four years includi ...
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  Stealing from the government coffers should stop and that will end the nation's headache. Single Spine Salary draining our coffers is a stupid excuse from the government. If MPs can be given $50,000 every four years including salary increases and that of the executives, the judiciary, why can't the little worker get the same brief?
  
  Mahama said that Ghana loses over $100 million a month through corruption at the Tema harbor and why can't they institute some measures to stop such huge leakage? Ghana is rich and can handle payment made to her children but as long as only some few disgruntle elements are enjoying, nothing can be achieved.
  
  Single Spine Salary is not the headache but corruption. Let's call a spade a spade.

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• Fuseini 12 years ago

  Ghanaians are being deceived with this single spine. How much does a labourer take in a month. how many of them do we have working in the civil service. how much does a clerk and typist take? What is the entry point of the ...
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  Ghanaians are being deceived with this single spine. How much does a labourer take in a month. how many of them do we have working in the civil service. how much does a clerk and typist take? What is the entry point of the degree holder in the civil service. Stop throwing sand into our eyes with single spine and stop deceiving outsiders too.

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• Concerned 12 years ago

  The truth is the wage bill has gone up, but SSSS isn't the main cause. The gov't has systematically been increasing the wage of non-SSSS workers (ministers, executives, etc), and it is mostly those higher remunerations that h ...
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  The truth is the wage bill has gone up, but SSSS isn't the main cause. The gov't has systematically been increasing the wage of non-SSSS workers (ministers, executives, etc), and it is mostly those higher remunerations that have cause the problem. Instead of gov't admitting it's now paying gov't crownies too much, it decides to blame the new salary structure affecting other civil servants.
  
  Shame, Sham and disgraceful attempt to mislead the public so no one eyes the daylight robbery. If they had their way, they would remove SSSS, but keep salary increases for all the thieving ministers

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• Obrefo 12 years ago

  Servicing of external and internal loans is the main cause of our finanacial headache. The little exchange we get is used to service our massive external loans.
  
  Internally, the government is out competing local business ...
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  Servicing of external and internal loans is the main cause of our finanacial headache. The little exchange we get is used to service our massive external loans.
  
  Internally, the government is out competing local business for loan and this continue to be the one of the major causes of the higher borrowing rate enjoy by our banks. The local businesses are priced out or forced out of business due to higher cause of borrowing. And a shrinking private sector economy means less money coming to support the government. The private sector economy is not growing or expanding at rate to increase the revenue in the form of taxes to support the expanding public sector, the government. It's the rapid growth of the private sector that can support the growth of the public sector but not the opposite.
  
  How do expect the private sector to grow when the cost of doing business is unbearable with higher electricity cost due to corruption of of VRA and ECG? Government is pilling up taxes on a quarterly basis. The cost of borrowing in Ghana is outragious and the least said about it the better.
  
  The goverment by itself can't generate enough funds to sustain it's financial activities. The finacial support in the form of taxes has to come from the private sector but, not through borrowing or going around the world begging to support our budget.
  
  A well orchestrated economic policies to vitalize the private sector economy could generate enough funds to support our expanding government. Leakages through corruption, kickbacks, incompetence, "qid pro quo" deals like the GYEEDA scheme, mismanagement and upright stealing and looting are contributing to our economic predicament at the moment. Create, loot and sharing of public funds with impunity is not helping either.
  
  The Single Spine is just exposing what we're not doing right to sustain the economy. We've to go to the drawing board and, pay a careful attention to grow the private sector economy in order to generate enough funds to meet the expanding needs of the growing parasitic public sector period.

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• km agyin 12 years ago

  The solution is simple, government should find a way to increase the tax net. You cannot tax people you cannot identify. A modern addressing system is what is needed to solve this. You got to know where someone lives before y ...
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  The solution is simple, government should find a way to increase the tax net. You cannot tax people you cannot identify. A modern addressing system is what is needed to solve this. You got to know where someone lives before you can send him his tax commitment. Knowing where people live will effectively enhance and widen tax collection. It will also enable us to successfully carry out the identification exercise.

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• Queen 12 years ago

  if IT WAS NOT FOR STUPIDITY, WHY WOULD ANY GOVERNMENT INCREASE WAGE BILL TO70%

  if IT WAS NOT FOR STUPIDITY, WHY WOULD ANY GOVERNMENT INCREASE WAGE BILL TO70%

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