CSOs commend govt for efforts to clear ghost names from payroll but say financial waste should stop

Members and partners of the Campaign Against the Privatization and Commercialization of Education (CAPCOE), have commended the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta for the efforts to remove ghost names from the payroll.

Mr Ofori Atta earlier assured that the government would conclude on-going measures to eliminate “ghost” workers from the Government payroll by end December 2022.

He said this while announcing measures to deal with the challenges facing the country on Thursday March 24.

“Government will conclude on-going measures to eliminate “ghost” workers from the Government payroll by end
December 2022;

“prioritize ongoing public projects over new projects. This is to enhance the efficient use of limited public funds over the period by finishing ongoing or stalled but approved projects; reduce expenditure on all meetings and conferences by 50%, effective immediately.”

He further revealed that with immediate effect, the Government has imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year.

He said this will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives.

“With immediate effect, Government has imposed a complete moratorium on the purchase of imported vehicles for the rest of the year. This will affect all new orders, especially 4-wheel drives. We will ensure that the overall effect is to reduce total vehicle purchases by the public sector by at least 50 percent for the period,” he said at a press conference on Thursday March 24 while announcing measures introduced to deal with the economic challenges.

A statement issued by the CSO on Sunday April 10 said “We commend the renewed effort of the Minister of Finance to purge the public payroll off ghost names, and further urge the Minister to take the following additional measures to reduce fiscal pressures on the education budget without necessarily transferring any part of the responsibility for tertiary salaries to tertiary institutions: Intensify domestic resource mobilization to shore up local revenues to finance social services provisioning. Urgently pass and implement the Exemptions Bill with the same priority given to the e-levy.
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“Take drastic measures to minimize financial waste in the education sector by departing from the culture of single source procurement for major procurement items and adopt the culture of competitive procurement to assure greater Value For Money in the education sector.

“Invest in an export driven economy by promoting value addition to raw materials such as gold, cocoa and crude oil to enhance our foreign exchange earnings potential and reduce inflationary pressures. Finally, we urge government to continue to fully absorb the full cost of staff salaries in public tertiary institutions in order to maintain tertiary fees at reasonable levels. It is the responsibility of government to provide equal access to tertiary education.”