Govt committed to ensuring suitable pension for all — Prez Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama has said the government remains committed to ensuring a suitable pension regime for all pensioners.
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Addressing scores of workers at a May Day rally at the Black Star Square in Accra yesterday, President Mahama said, "We will not engage in any acts that would undermine pensions.”
He also expressed discomfort with the long delay in resolving the impasse over the management of the Tier 2 Pension.
He consequently asked the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations and the Attorney General to dialogue with the workers' forum to seek an out-of-court settlement of the issue.
IMF programme
Predictably, the President mentioned the three-year IMF stabilisation programme, which it had just entered into, saying it would help bring stability in the economy and unlock donor funding.
He stated that if all Ghanaians worked together and resorted to disciplined public sector spending, this would be the last time the country would go to the IMF for structural adjustment.
President Mahama said he had made a strong commitment to ensure discipline in government expenditure.
"This will require sacrifices on our part, especially when the major agreement with the Fund will restrict central bank funding of the budget to not more than five per cent this year and to zero per cent for next year.
"This means that government will have little room to manoeuvre in the face of demands from labour and our sister partners," the President said.
No magic wand
In spite of all the good signs from the IMF programme, the President said that was not the path for realising a buoyant economy.
"I must emphasise that the repair and growth of our economy depend on ourselves and not by our bilateral or multilateral partners.
"The IMF has no magic wand to repair our economy," he pointed out.
Nonetheless, he told labour that they had a huge role to play in realising the goals of the IMF programme.
That was why the government intended to meet labour in the next few weeks to deal with outstanding issues on the Single Spine Pay Policy and related issues, President Mahama said.
No retrenchment
The President reiterated that the government had not committed to a public sector staff retrenchment exercise under the IMF programme.
However, the government was working to reduce the huge public sector wage bill, which dropped from 73 per cent of tax revenues in 2013 to 53 per cent of tax revenues in 2014, he said.
President Mahama further revealed that the Cabinet would soon consider an occupational safety and health policy bill, which would be eventually submitted to Parliament for consideration.
Meanwhile, President Mahama said, he had intervened to restore sanity in the operations of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB)
"I have tasked the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations to hold an urgent meeting with the management and staff to resolve any misunderstanding," he told the May Day rally.
The crisis within the state-owned bank had pitted management against staff over the proposed Initial Public Offer targeted at raising money for the bank.
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The workers, who are opposed to the initial offer, are calling for the dissolution of the board, and also the dismissal of the Managing Director, Mr Stephen Kpordzi.
The workers are also protesting the alleged sale of the bank's headquarters building and other landed property.
Last Friday, the managing director indicated that plans to sell the head office building had been shelved.
Communication gap
President Mahama identified "a communication gap" between the management and workers as the cause of the confusion.
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He, however, expressed the hope that sanity would eventually prevail.