Over thirty-eight thousand, nine hundred and forty (38,940) public sector workers retired from active public service between 2016 and 21st December 2018, Employment and Labour Minister Ignatius Baffour Awuah has told parliament.

Appearing before parliament to answer a question posed by Richard Kwaku Quashigah (Member of Parliament for Keta) on the number of public sector workers who have gone on retirement since 2016 to date, the Employment Minister stated that data sourced from the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department indicate that thirty-eight thousand, nine hundred and forty (38,940) public sector workers retired from active public service between 2016 and 21st December 2018.

He also confirmed that there has been less replacements due to an embargo on public sector appointment – down to Ghana signing up to an IMF deal that is expected to end in April this year.

The past administration in 2010 placed a ban on recruiting employees into the public sector as part of measures to stabilise the economy and effectively manage the public wage bill.

This embargo has over the years increased the country’s rate of unemployment.

However, the current government earlier in January stated that it will this year begin more recruitment into the public sector as the country prepares to exit the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

Ghana in 2015 signed a three-year Extended Credit Facility with the IMF, which saw the latter providing the government with some US$918million in eight tranches.

Part of the agreement sought to freeze employment into the public sector except in critical areas, and was aimed at restoring the country’s debt sustainability and macroeconomic stability to foster a return to high growth and job creation.

IMF boss Christine Lagarde, in December last year, said the country has been on track in meeting all conditions of the programme, which she said is set to end in April this year.

Subsequently, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said government is hopeful it will get financial clearance this year to engage a lot more in the public sector as it gears to exit the programme.

On government’s plan to integrate the recently-exited personnel from the security module of the National Youth Employment Agency programme into the security agencies, he revealed that the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) is currently in discussions with the Ghana Police Service (GPS) on the possibility of giving priority recruitment slots to the recently exited personnel.