FWSC to share best practices with Kenya

Executive Director of Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Mr. George Smith-Graham and the Board Chairman, Mr. John T. Warmann have been invited by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission of Kenya to share their successes, experiences and challenges with them in the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) in Ghana.

The Salaries and Remuneration of Kenya was established by the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 with the mandate to set and regularly review the remuneration and benefits of all State Officers and to advise the National and County Governments on the remuneration and benefits of all other public officers.

In their invitation letter, Mrs. G.A. Otieno, the Kenyan Commission’s Secretary said: “The Commission is in the process of developing and operationalizing its structural frame work including policy, legislation and systems that would enable it effectively and efficiently undertake its mandate”.

She added that to successfully undertake the functions, the Commission needs to have wider perspective of remuneration systems in the public services by benchmarking with countries and organizations with best practice.

The Commission has undertaken internet research on several countries within the African region and found out that the Republic of Ghana’s Fair Wages and Salaries Commission has been in existence for some time and developed policies, legislation and systems and the Commission could benefit from their experience.”

According officials of the Public Affairs of the FWSC, they said the executives would depart to Nairobi on 29 July, 2012 to help their counterparts in Kenya.

The issue of low pay, inequalities in pay structure and poor conditions of service for Ghana’s public service workers has over the years been a major concern for successive governments. Undoubtedly, the last two decades has witnessed a significant increase in public sector wage bill reaching a ratio of 11.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the 2008 fiscal year.

This accounts for over 40% of recurrent budget, 46% of all tax revenues and about a quarter of overall government expenditure. Indeed, the ratio of public service wage bill to GDP is deemed very high when compared to ratios of 6.2 for all West African countries and 7.5 for middle income countries.

Notwithstanding these situations, public sector earnings in Ghana remained low when compared to that of other countries.

In furtherance of the above, the Government of Ghana on the 26th November, 2009, issued a White Paper adopting the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) as the new pay policy for public sector employees, effective January 2010, recognizing the first six months as a period to handle technical issues. In 2009, the road map for the implementation of the SSPP was adopted by all stakeholders giving the commission the green light to start with the implementation of the SSPP.