Reconsider public sector job freeze

As the government begins negotiations with officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)  who are expected in the country later this week to discuss a bailout package, concerns about the rising public sector wage bill will be central on the agenda.

As things stand now, the government will need a combination of financial and technical advice to reverse the country’s deteriorating economic fortunes.

Among the accompanying policy package – commonly referred to as conditionalities – the IMF team will insist on, is tight limits on the public wage bill which will bring about a freeze on wage increments and net hiring in many sectors.

Other issues that are likely to feature in the negotiations are measures that will improve monitoring and control of the payroll database, audits and the introduction of an electronic payment voucher, a moratorium on new contracts, the alignment of investment programmes of statutory funds with national priorities to avoid duplication of efforts and the creation of a Ghana Infrastructure Fund [GIF] to leverage private financing of infrastructure projects and improve their selection and implementation.

The IMF is also arguing for “deeper irreversible reforms to entrench significant medium-term consolidation.”

While the above policy measures are aimed at correcting the economic imbalances, this paper believes that a blanket freeze or net hiring in the public sector will stifle productivity, especially in areas already understaffed.

The GRAPHIC BUSINESS is of the view that a freeze on employment will blunt the desired efficiency of the public sector, which is critical to national development.

Already, there are reports that key state institutions are reeling under the brunt of the freeze on jobs, thereby making the few personnel ineffective in the delivery of expected quality of service to the public.

Complaints by some heads of the state institutions that their outfits are understaffed should be taken seriously and resolved quickly.

For good reason, this paper needs not remind the authorities that ineffective public sector service can be a constraint on the economy. In the same breadth, a well-motivated, resourced and proactive public sector can serve as a powerful catalyst to spur performance of the economy.

The government should also be mindful that the quality of human resource in some public sector organisations is, by common consent, not the best compared with what the stakeholders expect of it.

The reason for this situation is easy to find. The conspicuous lack of facilities or tools and the lack of regular and systematic training of the public sector personnel to equip them with the requisite skills and competencies account for this situation. 

To correct the economic imbalance by tightening the public purse is not to starve the machinery of manpower, but to streamline the recruitment process to ensure that only competent people are employed.

So far, the public sector has earned the reputation of being generally a source of delay, obstruction and corruption; to the detriment of its enterprises. We should not worsen the situation by understaffing the very nerve of government operations all in the name of tightening the national purse.

As long as the public sector is understaffed, it will underperform, and when this happens, not only will the other public service organisations suffer but the economy as a whole will not move.