Musician turned political activist, A Plus
Musician turned political activist, A Plus, has reacted to a public sector salaries-related pronouncement by Prof Stephen Adei, a former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA.
Prof Adei was reported by Accra-based Class FM as advocating for a zero percent pay rise for public sector workers citing the harsh economic situation the country is in.
According to him, the call for no increment is a means of having public servants sacrifice as much as members of the executives have – referring to President Akufo-Addo’s freeze on salary raise for himself and a category of his appointees.
A Plus posted this on his Facebook wall: “It is not your fault,” before going on to list positions that Prof Adei was enjoying under the government as a board chairman.
He added: “One person you are: Board Chairman of GRA, Board chairman, NDPC; Member, Economic Advisory Team of government.”
GhanaWeb checks, however, reveal that Prof Adei is as of today, a former Board Chairman for the Ghana Revenue Authority. The GRA board is currently headed by Dr Anthony Oteng Gyasi.
On the issue of the National Development Planning Commission, contrary to A Plus’ claim that Prof Adei is the Chairman, he actually is Chairman of the NDPC and not its Board Chairman. He was appointed into the role by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in January 2019.
Aggrieved public sector workers held a protest last month to reject four and seven percent pay rise proposals for 2021 and 2022 respectively demanding to be given “nothing less than 25 per cent.”
What exactly did Prof Adei say about pay rise?
“… The people saying [the] 4 percent [pay rise] is not enough; actually, to be honest, it should have been zero per cent. Yes,” Prof Adei told the Class FM journalist in an interview aired on Wednesday, 29 September 2021.
“The situation in the country is such that except that – I must qualify it – you cannot say zero percent for them and other people get 70 percent or get an increase.
“It should have been zero across the board because the message should have been sent that we are in a crisis, so, we can’t have ‘Monkey dey chop, baboon dey work,” he explained.
“The president has come out and yet, in Ghana, the good news is not good news. The president has said that all the increase which was recommended, he is not going to accept it; as well as his vice and his ministers, and you know, it was just a flash in the pan.
“He [president] gave the instruction right from the beginning and what he has done is that, still, automatically, the Controller and Accountant General paid it into his account so he was refunding it. But whatever it is, whether it is from the outcry [of Ghanaians] or not, if you are a leader, it’s a good example. It says that: ‘We are in difficulty and therefore, I’m going for zero’. Then the other people should know that their 4 per cent is actually higher,” Prof Adei said.
“But the parliamentarians should come out and say something quickly,” he noted.