Ignatius Baffour Awuah
Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has announced that the nationwide payroll monitoring which commenced last year has saved the country GH¢345 million since its implementation in April, 2023.
Speaking at the Ministry of Information’s ‘Meet the Press’ series on the state of employment in the country yesterday in Accra, he said, “Analysis of the 2023 payroll data from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) showed a reduction in the wage bill by over GH¢345 million.”
He said that though the government has been able to achieve such success, the monitoring is still ongoing to prevent the recurrence of the infiltration of ‘ghost’ names in the payroll.
He said the payroll monitoring also saved SSNIT from making payments to individuals who were not qualified to benefit from pensions but found their names among beneficiaries.
Explaining further, Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Ben Arthur, said apart from reducing the country’s wage bill, the monitoring exercise has also enhanced attendance and productivity.
He said the payroll monitoring, which covered 120 institutions consisting of 97 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), six universities, and 17 others, provided an opportunity for them to consider a review of the Single Spine Pay Policy, gained insights on payment and salaries of other public sector workers who received salaries other than the Single Spine Pay Policy.
Touching on employment, the minister stated that over five million people have so far been employed in various sectors of the country while about five million people have also benefited from various jobs in other areas.
The minister indicated that a total of 732,898 youth have benefited from various modules of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) Programme, with over 116,089 benefiting under various modules of the ministry’s programmes since 2017.
“Community Protection Assistants, 15,000; Community Health Workers, 6,000; Waste and Sanitation, 45,000; Skills Training, 10,000; Youth in Agric, 5,000; Youth in ICT, 5,500; School Support Programme, 8,000, and Job Centre, 10,896,” he added.
The minister also mentioned that the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations is currently developing the Ghana Labour Market Information System (GLMIS) database to enable the labour department to provide quality service delivery to job seekers, aimed at resolving labour inefficiencies.
He said the system, which can be accessed via www.glmis.gov.gh, is designed to provide the main interface that facilitates interaction between job seekers and employers.
The development of the database forms part of activities by the Employment Ministry under the third component of the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project being funded by the World Bank to support skills development and job creation.
“The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations is implementing component 3 of the project which is focused on improving the capacity of the Labour Department for enhanced coordination of the labour market,” the minister emphasised.
The minister added that the platform will provide data on skills in demand and identify gaps for training and developments as well as enable employers make informed decisions on the labour market.
The platform allows employers to declare existing job vacancies for jobseekers to upload their Curriculum Vitae (CVs) for job matching.
The minister was optimistic that the Ghana Labour Market Information System (GMLIS) will reduce job mismatch, unemployment and under-employment as some teething problems in the labour market that government has to tackle, while the platform will also enhance the coordination of the labour market.
“Furthermore, as the system generates timely reports regarding the true state of the labour market, government would be in a better position to make policy interventions for maximum impact on the labour market,” he pointed out.
Mr. Baffour Awuah emphasised that the project will help address the infrastructural challenges that have hindered the labour department from delivering efficient services effectively.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah