Parliament on Tuesday June 7 ratified the $300 million loan facility for economic governance and poverty reduction from the World Bank. It received not a singular protest vote from either side of the House, with the Minority taking part in the voting.

However, this followed some disappointment from the Minority side which had hoped to be given the chance to debate the conditionalities attached to the loan facility, which they point would make Ghanaians poorer and add an additional 500,000 to the very poor list in the next two years.

The Minority boycotted proceedings yesterday, when the loan was being discussed over the repetition of an unsubstantiated allegation on the floor of the House that they each received $5,000 to vote  in favour of their government’s majority sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone last year.

But, they rescinded their Monday decision not to participate in the decision-making functions of the house, including voting, after the MP for Sene, Twumasi Appiah retracted the allegation.

They attempted to negotiate with the Majority to reopen the debate on the $5353m credit facility to allow for fuller scrutiny in return for the Minority rescinding the boycott decision. But, this was not successful. The Minority lacked the numbers to approve the loan yesterday after the Minority side walked out.

The first tranche of the loan, $150 million, should be released this month because according to the World Bank document covering the loan, the government has already fulfilled the conditions precedent.

However, the Minority was to focus on the actions that need to be taken by Government before the other half of the $300 million credit facility will be released.

These include, submitting to Parliament the Freedom of Information Bill, adopting an electricity sector financial recovery plan, adopting draft legislation on the Ghana Petroleum Regulatory Authority and oil and gas fiscal regime, continuing to implement a net hiring freeze in the public sector, eliminating ghost workers in health and education services, and preparing half of state owned enterprise for rationalisation, divestiture, or commercialisation.

The Minority is, therefore, expected to hold a press conference this week to highlight the issues that they were not able to raise on the floor of the House.

Teachers and Nurses Better Off Under NPP, Says World BankThe Head of Research of the Danquah Institute, Nana Attobrah, has remarked that the Government of Ghana in the last two years gave the biggest salary increments in real terms to public sector workers like never before in the nation's history. "In real terms salaries went up by 40 percent from 2006 to 2008. That is remarkable by any standard. Indeed, the figures reveal that from 2003 to 2008 teachers and others in the education sector saw their pay going up by 10 per cent every year in real terms. This means for every one of those years even after discounting increases in prices of consumer goods and services, the Ghanaian public sector worker had 60 percent more money to spend in actual terms."

Nana Attobrah says the situation was even far better for health workers. A World Bank report, Nana Attobrah says, shows that those in the public sector saw their pay going up more than 25 percent higher than their counterparts in the private sector, especially with unionised staff.

"What the figures show is that the World Bank admits that Ghanaian workers were generally better off under the NPP and must brace themselves for tougher times in the next two years. The fiscal deficit has to be reduced, by all means. But, should it be at the expense of teachers, nurses and police officers, who are already struggling to make ends meet with their take-home pay?" the DI research analyst asked.

Quoting from figures released this week, he said "the World Bank acknowledges that at over 11 percent of GDP, Ghana’s public sector payroll stands as one of the largest ratios in Africa. The average in Africa is at about 6 percent."

But, this has contributed to the large fiscal deficit that the NDC government has assured Ghanaians and the Bretton Wood institutions that it is committed to tackle, says Nana Attobrah.

He, therefore, warns teachers, nurses, police officers and civil servants to brace themselves for a "possible below inflation pay rise this year, which in effect means their actual take-home pay will buy less this year, as compared to last year."

The public sector wage bill consumed nearly half (49%) of Government revenue last year. According to figures available to the Danquah Institute, most of this expansion came from substantial wage increases in the recent past, as well as an expansion in the number of subvented agencies' employees.

Quoting from the figures, Nana Attobrah says, "In 2008, the wage bill increased by 38 percent. But, if you measure that against an average annual inflation rate of 15% last year, then the Ghanaian public sector worker enjoyed an overall pay increase of 20 percent." He adds, "The numbers also show that there was an 8 percent rise in employment in the public sector."

The Executive Director of the centre-right think tank says that over the past 3 fiscal years, the Ghanaian worker got used to "a relatively generous pay increases, which conditions this year will not allow. For example, in 2006, the wage budget shot up by 36 percent. The following year also witnessed a further increase of the wage bill by 27."

This compares favourably to the wage situation in the previous four years under HIPC, a period marked by stabilisation.