Universities, ECG likely to be taken off single spine

President John Mahama and his Finance Minister, Seth Tekper, last week both appeared on the same platform in Ho, capital of the Volta Region, to discuss the sustainability of the Single Spine Pay Policy, but even before the two-day program could come to an end, the two had been condemned by many social commentators for making statements which apparently opposed each other instead of singing from the same hymn book.

President Mahama in his address stressed that, “we have come far and opting out of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) or cancelling the programme is not an option for government.”

However, the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper was also widely reported as saying the SSPP was not sustainable going forward because the country's wage bill could exceed the total revenue if steps were not taken to address the situation; a statement many have described as contradictory to the President Mahama had given earlier.

The statement of the Finance Minister seemed to have kept sway as participants at the forum were reported to have supported a move to phase out some subvented institutions off the SSSS.

According to media reports, the participants at the forum as part of recommendations, agreed that agencies such as Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Volta River Authority (VRA) and others that are seen as viable enough should be taken off the SSPP immediately as part of measures to deal with the mounting government wage bill.

In fact all public universities, according to the reports, have been penciled to be weaned off the single spine policy.

Government says it has spent about GHc7.2 billion in implementing the policy which commenced in 2010 after it was suspended for a year in order to smoothen all rough edges.

According to Mr. Seth Terkper, the expenditure on SSPP was the cause of government budget deficit which currently stands at 12.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Government has also revealed that it spends close to 70% of revenue from taxes to pay its workers.