Public Sector Reform In Ghana Politics Essay

frequent firmament refine In gold coast political relation Essaygold coasts mankind sphere of influence serves as the largest employer of her labor force and in addition contributes signifi basistly toward the countrys instruction. Contrarily, people gener entirelyy tend to hold negative perceptions to the highest degree the vault of heaven. However, in her bid to in all(a) the same sanity and promote a devout image of the system as well as come across change magnitude productivity of the heavens, the regimen of Ghana recently introduced several disentangles inside her worldly concern sector. This report card therefore explores the current world sector repossess programs such as the wage squ be aways popularly dubbed individual urging profits body structure (S-cube) that choose been apply in Ghana. The author however investigates whether or not these current crystalises programs would be sustainable.INTRO DUCTI ONThe catchphrase cosmos Sector Reforms has e merged everywhere the past decades in both right and ontogenesis countries where governments acquire embarked upon sweeping reforms to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the reality sector. Efforts at reforming the overt sector is much than pronounced in Africa where the sector in galore(postnominal) a(prenominal) of its countries is seen as a mere watchman rather than serving as a facilitator for the private sector to drive the pace of growth and development. As Fatile et al (2010 145) aptly put it All African countries argon caught in the web of Public Sector Reforms.Ghana, a country in sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed its sh be of these reforms and continues to experiment with new ones. Like m tout ensemble in all African countries, Ghanas essay at reforming its populace sector can be traced back to the mid-eighties when it underwent the foundation Banks Structural Adjustment Programs. From that time until now, successive governments bewilder systematically apply reforms in its Public Sector which has been full of mixed results. Amongst these imply, urbane helping Improvement Program (CSPIP), Public Administration Restructuring and Decentralization and carrying out military representation (PARDIC), the complaisantian wait on Reform (CSR) and Public Sector Reform Program (PSRP) of the now defunct Ministry of Public sector Reform (Holm- Graves, 2011). kind of recently, the public sector of Ghana came under intense criticisms from the public with many citing the sectors inability to meet the needs of its employees, decomposition, poor delivery of serve, and a swarm of separate issues as the ills plaguing the sector. These issues alongside global pressures have made the Government of Ghana to introduce and implement new reform initiatives ranging from succumb reforms to progress in service delivery.This motif as part of a larger project work outed at investigating the new reform programs that have been enforced in Ghana a nd to contribute to the broader news of public management publications focuses on the on-going turn out reform program popularly known as the oneness Spine profits Structure (SSSS) that is existence undertaken to replace the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) which proved to be marginally favored (Cooper-Enchia, 2008). Unlike the GUSS which is the first ecumenical support indemnity implement in Ghana, the SSSS tries to bring more order to the compensate setting process by promoting adequate comparability of similar jobs across public sector serve and institutions (Cavalcanti, 2009).This paper therefore attempts to examine the sustainability of the on-going SSSS in Ghana. Due consideration is alike given to the prospects and take exceptions faced in the instruction execution of this new wages reform program. The rest of the paper is structured as follows. The next section tangs at public sector reforms in Ghana by narrowing the discussion to devote reforms tha t have been implemented in the country to put the paper in perspective. Section three provides an overview of Ghanas Single Spine ante up reform program. Here, the prospects and challenges facing the implementation of the on-going program have been discussed. The final section of the paper discusses the way forward for the current reform program in Ghana. populace SECTOR REFORMS IN GHANA A HISTORICAL CONTEXTHistorically, efforts at reforming the public sector in many countries have been diverse which can be largely attributed to the issues that occasion such initiatives. In Africa and other developing countries, public sector reforms have been heavily driven by widely distributed decline in public finances and the need to get more for less (Caiden cited in Ayee, 2008 2). These initiatives were promoted to improve the image of governments in the global flying field and to mitigate the dead hand of bureaucracy. It is against this background that Ghanas public sector reform efforts have evolved.A closer look into past reform efforts in Ghana shows that initial attempts dates back to 1980s when many African countries implemented a wide range of reform programs with the support and supervision of the World Bank and other reform institutions (Owusu,2006). Ghana vigorously pursued these reforms with the aim of halting economic decline and stagnation to institutional reforms and poverty reduction. The Civil Service Reform Program implemented in 1987, a sight of the series of the economic reform programs was the first reform program to be undertaken in the country. The implementation of the CSRP was aimed at reducing overstaffing and trimming redundant civil servants (Owusu, 2005).However, between 1994 and 2003, reform initiatives in Ghana took a new look with the createment of the National Institutional Renewal Program (Owusu, 2003). Efforts at this period were centered on improving the public sector through enhancing its efficiency.Recognizing the failures of all the reforms that were implemented from 1987-2003, the erstwhile Kuffour administration took a giant step to establish a Ministry of Public Sector Reform in 2005 to ensure the development of home grown reform initiatives which oversaw the implementation of a number of reforms in the public sector until it was eventually replaced with the Public Sector Reform secretariate under the Mills regime.Having undergone several reform efforts, Public sector reformers in Ghana have realized that many of the problems associated with poor public presentation, leave out of professionalism and corruption are directly related to low fee levels and ineffective support administration (Cooper-Enchia, 2008), thus, the introduction of the Single Spine Pay indemnity which forms the crux of the paper. However, any discussion of this new pay off indemnity calls for a diminutive look into past wage and salary reform attempts.Past Public Sector Pay Reform Attempts in GhanaOver the years, governm ents in Ghana have introduced several pay reforms and reviews in order to pair the disparity and inequity gaps in its pay administration systems (TUC bulletin). Prominent among these efforts are reviews under committees and commissions such as Mills-Odoi (1967) Issifu Ali Committee (1973) Azu Gabbe way (1979), the National Committee for Wage and Salary Rationalization (1983) and the Gyampoh Salary commission (1992) (Ibid).All these efforts notwithstanding, the problems that these reviews want to address still lingered on since most of these committees and commissions which were set up remained adhoc and transient (source). Moreover, the recommendations that the committees and equips made on the existing pay system were never implemented by the government. For instance, the NDC government accepted the recommendations of the Gyampoh Commission in 1992 to consolidate allowances into fundamental salary but failed to implement them (Kiragu et al, 2003). These gives credence to the fact that political leave alone is key in ensuring the implementation and success of reforms and buttress what Polidano (2001) says account for the wherefore reforms in government fail.Having failed in its bid to achieve the objective of rectifying the imbalances in the pay administration system, there was the need to develop a more realistic and sustainable mechanism to reform the public services pay structure. Therefore, a more comprehensive approach to reforming the public sector pay inadequacies known as the Ghana Universal Salary Structure ( GUSS) was introduced in 1997 to forestall the problems inherent in the existing pay structure.The GUSS, a 22 level salary structure was put across to be implemented in all public sector institutions in Ghana. However, the aim of catholicity underlying the implementation of the pay policy could not be achieved since approximately sections of the public service institutions were made to opt out of the policy without any sanctions melted ou t to them. Moreover, the central body which oversaw the implementation of the GUSS did not have any legal mandate that established its legality to implement the policy and were withal not adequately resourced (Government of Ghana, 2009).THE SINGLE SPINE PAY indemnityOverviewThe Single Spine Pay Policy is a new comprehensive pay reform program introduced to replace the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS). It is anticipated that the Single Spine Pay Policy provide be able to restore equity and transparency in Ghanas public service remuneration structure (Government of Ghana, 2009).The Policy is designed to cover all the public sector employees specified under oblige 190 of the 1992 governing body of the Republic of Ghana. Those in these home include the civil service, the Judicial service, the analyse service, the Education service, the Prisons service, the Parliamentary service, the Police service, the Immigration service, and the legal service. Others include workers of t he character and all other public services as Parliament of Ghana may by law prescribe to part of the policy.However, the policy excludes all public employees specified under Article 71 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana. The officials who light up under this classification include the speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice and other justices of the superior court of Judicature, the Auditor- General, the chairman and Deputy Chairmen of the Electoral Commission, the Commissioner for Human Rights and administrative Justice and his deputies and the District Assemblies Common Fund Administrator and the lead and Vice- Chairman and other members of the National Council for Higher Education, the Public services commission, the National Media Commission, the Lands Commission and the National Commission for Civic Education (Constitution of Republic of Ghana, 1992 Ankomah, 2010)The SSSS places public sector employees on a 25-level unified salary structure as compared to the 22-level salar y structure under the GUSS. Moreover, since the SSSS attempts to put all public sector employees on a common structure, it utilizes the so called base pay (Cavalcanti, 2009) which is the minimum pay on the structure (Ankomah, 2010).Aside the common base pay, there are other remunerations such the Market Premiums as to induce certain category of professionals which is over and above the common base pay. Other commissions and allowances are also expected to be made specifically to certain group of public sector employees (Cavalcanti, 2010)It is worth mentioning that, the first time in Ghanas pay reform history, there have been an establishment of a Fair wages and salaries commission (FWSC) legally mandated by an Act of parliament (Act, 737, 2007) to oversee to the implementation of this pay reform policy (Ankomah, 2010 Cooper-Enchia, 2009 Government of Ghana, 2009).Rationale for Ghanas New Pay PolicyThere have been serious debates concerning Ghanas public sector pay over a long period of time. Issues that have been at the center point of such debates concerns how to manage the pay disparities deep down the public sector and the uprise cost of the public sector wage account. For instance, although public sector salaries in Ghana constitute a major proportion of the government expenditure, it still remains very low and uncompetitive thus making the tie and retainment of technical and managerial talents difficult (Ankomah, 2010). In addition, pay disparities continues to widen among public sector workers. It is against this backdrop that the Government has introduced this new pay policy. Hence, the Single Spine Pay Policy seeks to address the following key issuesPay disparities that have emerged within the public servicesRising cost of the public sector wage billLarge number of public sector pay negotiationsLinkage of pay to productivity ( Government of Ghana, 2009)Aim and Objectives of the SSSSThe overarching aim of the Single Spine pay policy is to ensure eq uity, fairness and transparency in the public service pay administration. Specifically, the objectives of the policy are toPlace all the public sector employees one vertical structureEnsure that jobs within the same job value range are paid within the same pay range (i.e exist pay for work of equal work )Allow Government the ability to manage the wage bill more efficientlyEnsure compliance and ease of monitoring the pay structures of self-accounting institutionsMinimize industrial-relation tensions related to low pay and distortions across the public services andLink pay to productivity ( Government of Ghana, 2009)Ghanas SSSS ImplementationThe implementation of Ghanas Single Spine Pay Policy commenced in July 2010 with the Police service being the first public sector institution to be migrated onto the new pay structure. The full scale implementation is scheduled to be undertaken within a five year period. Currently, all government employees specified under Article 190 of the 1992 Constitution of Republic of Ghana have been moved onto the structure. The stages that were followed in implementing the policy are listed belowJob analysis and military rank externalize of a grading structure based on the results of the job evaluationPlacement of jobs on the grading structureDetermination of the base pay and relativity through negotiationsDesign of the SSSSPlacement if the individual jobholders on the SSSSnormalization of the allowancesNegotiation of other conditions of service between Fair wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and Unions/ Associations in the nine service classificationDevelopment of public sector-wide performance systemMonitoring and ensuring compliance (Ankomah, 2010Government of Ghana, 2009 )Emerging ChallengesThe implementation of the whizz Spine pay reform in Ghana like its forerunner policies have faced several challenges. Amongst the key challenges the policy has been beset with include the followingFirst, the migration of public sector wor kers onto the SSSS have been met with mixed results. While, the Police Service who were the first institution to be moved onto the new pay policy have hailed the policy as a good approach to ensure substantial increase in the salaries of all Ghanaian workers. Other Public sector workers share lukewarm attitudes toward the new pay policy. For instance, the health sector workers have consistently raised issues about internal relativity distortions and lack of transparency in the Job arrangement. They contend that the re-evaluation that was done prior to the placement of workers onto the SSSS was a total flaw (Ankomah, 2010). These same issues have also been advanced by other workers including Ghana Prison Service Staff, Civil Service and Local Government staff (Ibid)Another major challenge confronting the SSSS implementation has to do the payment of market premiums to certain categories of workers such as doctors, nurses, etc who are said to possess special skills set that are in su ccinct supply. It is argued that the absence of such professionals could throw the country into chaos (Abbey cited in Ankomah, 2010)A third critical issue that has been raised by the labor unions and associations curiously Civil and Local Government Service Association of Ghana as far as the implementation of the SSSS has to do with collective bargaining arrangements. to a lower place the SSSS, there is only one umbrella negotiation committee, that is, the Public go Joint Negotiation Committee that can negotiate Public Salary which comprises Fair Wages and Salaries Commission on one hand and unionised labor / associations on the other hand Ankomah (2010). This threatens workers right as stipulated in the Labor Act, 2003 to collectively bargain and renders them powerless to fight for future improvements in their salaries and conditions of service.Poor management systems on human resources in Public institutions in Ghana have also been cited as a major challenge facing the impleme ntation of the SSSS. According to Ankomah (2010), the current policy will take away a thorough and complete assessment and review, which would demand a lot of competences and skills. Unfortunately, the human resource departments and units do not have the capacity to adequately manage this change. Moreover, the data base and Monitoring and Evaluation systems in the public institutions are not enough to cope with this new policy.WAY antecedentCONCLUSION