Govt saves GH¢895m from public sector payroll monitoring
The government has saved GH¢895 million from its payroll monitoring and the deactivation of “ghost’’ names on the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension scheme.
In the case of payroll monitoring, GH¢345 million was saved last year, while the deactivation of “ghosts’’ on the SSNIT scheme prevented GH¢550 million from being paid to unknown and unvalidated recipients.
The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, said this at a press briefing in Accra yesterday.
“Last year, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) conducted a nationwide payroll monitoring. The exercise covered 120 public sector institutions, consisting of 97 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), six universities and 17 others.
“Analysis of the 2023 payroll data from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department showed a reduction in the wage bill by over GH¢345 million. The payroll monitoring is ongoing,” Mr Awuah said.
Pensions
The minister said as part of the government’s vision towards the transformation of the pensions industry, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) was rolling out a new software to fully automate its internal and external operations and that was critical to safeguard pension fund assets which were growing rapidly and required prudent management of its investment.
In 2017, Mr Baffour-Awuah said the government resolved the long-standing issue regarding the Temporary Pension Fund Account (TPFA) with public sector workers and through collaborative efforts, the government transferred GH¢3.1 billion into the accounts of Public Sector Occupational Pension Scheme custodians.
Over the last seven years, the number of zonal offices for the NPRA has increased from two in 2016 to seven as of this month.
The addition of five new zonal offices enhanced the visibility of the NPRA and brought pension services closer to the people.
Mr Awuah said enrolment onto the Three-Tier Pension Scheme had become seamless through the Ghana Card.
Subsequently, active contributors to the SSNIT scheme have increased from 1.35 million in 2016 to more than two million as of April this year.
Coverage of pensions in the informal sector, the Employment and Labour Relations Minister said, had also increased from 35,178 in 2016 to 817,468 members currently.
Similarly, the average processing time for pensions was now seven days.
“The total benefit expenditure under the SSNIT Scheme is expected to increase from GH¢5.45 billion in 2023 to GH¢7.03 billion in 2024. This expenditure covers an estimated 244,000 pensioners on the SSNIT Pension Payroll,” he said.
Mr Awuah said SSNIT also saved over GH¢550 million from the deactivation of about 19,000 “ghost pensioners” on the SSNIT Pension Payroll.
Job creation
On job creation, the minister said the government continued to reform and position the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) as a facilitator of jobs for the teeming youth and that for the year under review, 116,09 beneficiaries were engaged under various modules of the YEA programme.
They included Community Protection Assistants, Community Health Workers, Waste and Sanitation, Skills Training Job Centre, Youth in Agriculture, Schools’ Support Programme and Youth in ICT.
“From 2017 to date, 732,898 youth have benefited from various modules of the YEA programme,” Mr Awuah said.
He said the establishment of the Ghanaian-European Centre for Jobs, Migration and Development (GEC) had also enhanced opportunities for the provision of decent employment for job seekers; particularly young persons who have the intention of migrating for jobs or had returned from abroad for a variety of reasons.
Between 2017 and 2023, job placements undertaken by the GEC, PECs and PEAs totaled 61,419, made up of 44,138 males and 17,281 females.
Again, he said in 2021, the ministry developed the National Green Jobs Strategy to provide a framework for the promotion of green jobs in Ghana.
From 2021 to July this year, the ministry undertook six regional sensitisation programmes and one media training programme to promote the creation of green jobs.
As a result, Mr Awuah said, over 650 individuals from MMDAs and the informal sector had benefited from the sensitization programmes and 50 media houses had also benefited from the Green Jobs regional sensitization programmes.
“Data available to us indicates that from 2021 to 2023, a total of 20,915 green jobs were created.
This was in sectors including renewable energy, services, education, agriculture, waste management and recycling,” he said.
Enactments review
The world of work, he said, was changing rapidly, and as a result, the country must be adequately prepared for it.
He said the ministry had, therefore, reviewed a number of sector enactments to make them comprehensive and suitable for contemporary use.
They include the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651), the Factories, Offices and Shops Act, 1970 (Act 328); and the Cooperatives Societies Act, 1968 (N.L.C.D 252).
“The world of work has undergone dramatic changes to the extent that if care is not taken, the current labour law may soon not be fit for purpose,” he explained.