We must reduce large public sector work force - Ken Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is appealing to labour and Civil Society Organizations to help government cut down the large size of Ghana’s public sector workers as the country exits the IMF programme by end of 2018.

Reacting to question on how previous IMF programmes have done little to help rapidly accelerate economic growth in a television interview on on Citi TV, Mr. Ofori-Atta questioned if it is prudent for government to spend half of its revenue on paying wages and salaries in the public sector.

“Should I be paying say 50 percent of my revenue to say 50,000 people? .We say no. it means therefore that we must drive towards 35 percent. But that is a shared agreement. What is the quality of life that we want as people? We want you to be educated so that you have decent jobs, you want a roof over your head, You want food and shelter etc,” he told Bernard Avle, host of the programme.

He observed that with the help of labour and CSOs, public discourse on what constitutes income could be redefined to improve economic wellbeing of the masses.

“We have to now discuss with labour about the new housing scheme. So that labour is not the GHS100 cedis that I earn but if I can be clear about getting housing in 15 and 20 years’ time, that certainly is worth it”

“We have done our part to start the education because definitely human capital is free. How do we at this point in time create a social partnership in which we sit down as a people and agree between ourselves that okay, labour, CSO what is this that we are going to do that sociologically fits where we want to go as a people,” he added.

He maintained that labour will be critical part of such a decision to sustain its implementation.

credit: Citinewsroom