Takoradi, May 29, GNA- Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Public Sector Reform, on Tuesday said the government hopes to put in place a single salary structure for public sector institutions this year. Speaking at a meeting with public and civil servants at Takoradi, he said salaries of workers would not be reduced when the new structure is implemented.
Dr Nduom said pay and pension reforms are the highest priority of the government and that the pay reform would continue to be a priority until significant progress is made in basic salaries.
He said the new salary structure would include a progressive monetisation of non-cash benefits across the public services. Dr Nduom said this is to be supported by appropriate housing and long-term savings scheme, improved pensions and processing of pensions. He said last year, pay distortions and wrongful placements in the civil service were removed and corrected and this increased the level of pay across board in the service.
Dr Nduom said this year; other institutions including the Ghana Education Service have received similar benefits from the reform programme.
"Government recognizes that we are not where we should be in terms of equity and the size of take home pay and that is why a lot of time and money is being spent on a national job analysis and evaluation exercise".
Dr Nduom said the outcome of the job analysis and evaluation process would be the re-grading of jobs based on their comparability and the establishment of public sector pay based on job worth.
He said this work would be completed in August this year and the resulting adjustments would be captured in the 2008 budget.
Dr Nduom said one of the most important initiatives in the public sector reform is the Service Delivery Improvement Project.
He said the project is to improve upon the service delivered to the public by all public sector institutions including the central agencies and the district assemblies.
Dr Nduom said another initiative is the Conditions of Work Reform, which seeks to improve the physical working conditions of public service personnel and update the available office equipment to improve productivity.
He urged managements of Public sector institutions to keep their work environment clean and hospitable.
Dr Nduom said, "We need your help to keep out hawkers, casual visitors and other people who only come to disrupt our work and make us inefficient in our duty to our customers".
He called on the Civil Servants Association to come out with its own programme on improving condition of work. Dr Nduom said devices would be installed at public sector institutions to check staff attendance, while monitoring devices would also be installed at revenue generation points to monitor what goes on. Mr. Smart Chigabatia, Executive Secretary of the Civil Servants Association, asked workers to change their attitude to work to raise productivity.
He said it is unfair for public servants to receive higher salaries than civil servants because they are both paid from the consolidated fund.
Mr. Chigabatia said there are no differences in the work schedule of public servants and civil servants and should therefore attract the same salaries.