Unearned salaries make up about 22% of the government's wage bill, according to a preliminary monitoring report from the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission( FWSC) on 58 institutions. In order to eliminate current anomalies and payroll fraud in the public sector and prevent undeserved salaries from costing the struggling economy an estimated GH10 billion annually, the shocking revelation came from an ongoing nationwide payroll monitoring exercise.
According to the FWSC's analysis, we are paying a third of the wage bill as undeserved salaries. The Daily Graphic considers the development to be a serious indictment of our country's need for financial assistance from foreign donors in addition to being upsetting and regrettable. The last thing we want to hear is this never-ending problem that many governments have been unable to solve at a time when the nation's economic situation is so dire and necessitates outside assistance.
The discovery raises the question of what happened to the sizable investments made in the purchase of technology and systems to stop such fraudulent behavior. The Daily Graphic can recall that numerous software programs intended to purportedly sanitize the government payroll have cost more than$ 200 million over the course of history but to no avail. Because the nation spends more than 60% of its domestic revenue on salaries and benefits for less than a million public-sector employees, The Daily Graphic believes the development to be incredibly cruel to private-sector workers.
In light of this, we applaud the FWSC for the monitoring exercise that is part of its duty as a government agency under the terms of Act 737 of 2007 to create and monitor allowances and benefits, as well as to coordinate, manage, and track collective bargaining processes where the government is either the direct or indirect employer.
Because it aims to handle the public sector wage bill and ensure fairness and equity in salary administration, the exercise's overall goal is appropriate by all standards. We need to understand that producing payroll effectively, on schedule, and in accordance with the law is one of any payroll system's main goals. The pay must also be free of any violations and intrusions, especially in light of the size that the FWSC reported.
The Daily Graphic is seizing the chance to persuade organizations and organizations for government and public sector workers, in particular, to band together to put an end to this practice, which appears to be going on forever. We should all be aware that the International Monetary Fund( IMF) has been asked for a bailout due to the turbulence in our economy, which has forced the government to do so.
We have visited the IMF for 17 days, including today, and this is concerning because it makes it abundantly clear that the nation is unable to manage its finances. To permanently close these significant gaps in the nation's pay system, we must all work together. Let's keep in mind that only a small number of people end up with the stolen money, so the majority of us must exercise more caution when pointing out suspicious behavior that, if left unchecked, will leave us in poverty while the select few enjoy their illicit wealth at our expense.
