Ghana government to cut salaries of appointees by up to 30%

Ghana president, Nana Akufo-Addo could reduce the salaries of appointees by between 20% and 30%, according to reports by local media citing “reliable sources”.

This came up after the President was engaged in an emergency meeting with his cabinet ministers and members of the Economic Management Team (EMT) over the weekend.

Salaries of ministers, heads of state enterprises as well as heads of municipal and district assemblies will all be affected.

According to reports, discussions are currently ongoing and a final decision would be out by the close of Monday (21 March).

The move is to protect social interventions such as the School Feeding Programme.

According to the sources, critical among the matters under discussion is whether to maintain the 20% cut across the board or increase it.

Ransford Gyampo, an associate professor in the political science department of the University of Ghana, had earlier in a letter requested the government to reduce the size of his government and slash appointees’ salaries by 30%.

One measure to keep the economy running that the government announced earlier this year is that the treasury will reduce the allocation to metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) for the first quarter of 2022 by roughly 20%.

In a tweet over the weekend, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the political strategist called on the communications machinery of the Akufo-Addo administration to be more proactive in publicizing governments measures taken to “deal with the fiscal difficulties”.

According to local media reports, the meeting which started on Thursday also discussed the controversial E-levy Bill, and whether or not the government should continue with its passage or resort to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ghana’s current public debt stock stands at GH¢341.8 billion with a corresponding debt to GDP ratio of more than 77% as of September ending 2021.

This implies each of the country’s 30.8 million population owes approximately GH¢11,000 if shared amongst them.

Responding to the country’s debt stock the former Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Professor Adei, on Wednesday proposed that the country’s expenditure be reduced.

“If you are exceeding your income, then you must accept to live below your income, which is the easy way, otherwise if you are earning GH¢3,000 and you are in debt of GH¢10,000 you cannot day to day spend GH¢3,000.

For you to get out of the rag you will have to cut your expenditure to GH¢2,000 because you must service your debt.