A former president of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG), Mr George Kyei Baffuor, has described the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) as an ineffective institution, which easily bows to pressure to satisfy government.

Mr Baffuor, who was speaking with Ekow Mensah-Shalders on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class 91.3FM, has questioned the FWSC’s objectivity in dealing with salary and remuneration issues of public sector workers.

The FWSC was established to ensure a fair, transparent, and systematic implementation of the Government of Ghana Public Service Pay Policy.

As part of its objectives, the FWSC is also supposed to undertake negotiations where compensation is financed from public funds.

But Mr Baffuor indicates that the commission has failed in its mandate.

“The little said about the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission the better. This institution is crowded by government with its partisan colouration,” he said, adding: “A Minister gives a directive and that is all because they [FWSC] do not control the system, they are all appointees of the president.”

“For that matter looking at the kind of politics we are doing in this country, the FWSC is a toothless bulldog. It cannot bite but it has teeth,” he stated.

Mr Baffuor believes the Single Spine Pay Policy is the solution to salary discrepancies in the country, and has charged government to solve the challenges associated with the system by implementing it to the letter.

He is entreating government to desist from implementing policies for political gains and manage the economy to the benefit of the ordinary citizen.

“I heard someone is working for the GNPC and taking GHS 40,000 for a month, can you imagine that?” he questioned.

“People are working tirelessly under very strenuous conditions, you look at their pay package and conditions of work, work satisfaction, and you will just weep for them. As a country we need to be very circumspect in the way we manage our economy otherwise we will not be able to make enough payment to undertake the necessary development that will benefit the ordinary Ghanaian who is the hewer of the wood.”

“I don’t know what is wrong with us as a people, we do all things for political convenience,” he stated.