Seth Terkper
Ghanaians, especially those in government employment, may have to brace themselves for harder times ahead because Finance and Economic Planning Minister Seth Terkper says government is not in a position to meet the demands of agitating labour unions and workers, for that matter.
This, Mr Terkper said, is as a result of government having to make what he described as some ‘critical payments’ and personal emoluments in the last couple of weeks which has affected the national coffers.
In simple language, the Finance Minister said government is broke.
Government payments to statutory bodies are in arrears for several months, crippling the effective operations of such organisations.
The government cannot meet its statutory payments to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for payment to service providers; Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for contractors and students on government scholarships; the Road Fund for periodic and regular road maintenance; Talk Tax for NYEP; District Assembly Common Fund and Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for workers contributions.
“We’re only asking for moderation with respect to payments. The impacts of the migration are different, therefore, let’s manage it carefully because some workers are yet to be migrated and others are yet to be paid”, he noted in an interview on Accra-based Joy FM yesterday.
There is a wave of labour agitations for improved conditions of service, with doctors, teachers, university lecturers, hospital pharmacists and judicial staff waving the red flag.
It appears that there is no end in sight to the worker-agitations as the Minister admitted that government coffers are dry.
This seems to be in sharp contrast to comments by Information and Media Relations Minister, Mahama Ayariga, who claimed during a media encounter at the Flagstaff House a couple of weeks ago that government is not broke.
Instead, he said government is being strategic in disbursing resources.
However, the Finance Minister welcomed calls for a second look at the controversial Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) government pay-policy whose implementation has been a major source of headache for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He believed this could help find a lasting solution to the numerous sit-down strikes.
Mr Terkper admitted the issue of borrowing is one of the major challenges facing government, since in his own words, “last year was a difficult fiscal year and continual borrowing to pay the arrears would cripple us because you are depending on borrowing which comes with interests.”
In view of this, the soft-spoken Seth Terkper stressed the “need for stakeholders to come to some understanding to avoid lump sum payments.”
He admitted that labour negotiations and deferments of payments are often the result of inadequate funds emanating from budgetary constraints from donors.
This, according to him, is what usually affects the payment of salaries, resulting in labour agitations.
The Finance Minister therefore indicated government’s preparedness to work with the various labour unions and affected workers in finding a lasting solution to strike actions by government workers.
This, according to him, is the reason “the Chief of Staff, Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress and some Clergy have met with various labour groups.”
In spite of that, he insisted that “government desires a broader Stakeholder debate.”
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