Features
Is the freeze on employment not worsening the precarious graduate unemployment situation in Ghana?
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori- Atta, on Thursday, November 24, 2022, presented the 2023 Budget and Economic Policy of the Government to Parliament, indicating far-reaching measures towards expenditure rationalisation to salvage the current economic downturn in the country that has resulted in severe hardships among the populace. Among these measures, is the announcement of a freeze on employment for civil and public servants, effective January, 2023.
FREEZE ON EMPLOYMENT
The Minister announced also that the purchase of new vehicles shall be restricted to locally assembled vehicles while the allocation of fuel coupons to political appointees and Heads of Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and State-Owned Enterprises
(SOES), HAD BEEN REDUCED BY 50 PER CENT.
These were the words from the Minister; “Mr. Speaker, as a first step towards expenditure rationalisation, the Government has approved the following directives which take effect from January 2023. All MDAs MMDAs and SOEs, are directed to reduce fuel allocations to Political Appointees and Heads of MDAs, MMDAs and SOEs by 50 per cent. This directive applies to all methods of fuel allocation, including coupons, electronic cards, chit system and fuel depots. Accordingly, 50 per cent of the previous year’s (2022) budget allocation for fuel, shall be earmarked for official business pertaining to MDAs, MMDAs and SOEs;
EXPENDITURE RATIONALISATION
“A ban on the use of V8s/V6s or its equivalent, except for cross-country travel. All government vehicles would be registered with GV green plates from January 2023; Limited budgetary allocation for the purchase of vehicles. For the avoidance of doubt, the purchase of new vehicles shall be restricted to locally assembled vehicles; Only essential foreign travel across government, including SOEs shall be allowed for board members. Accordingly, all government institutions should submit a travel plan for the year 2023 by mid-December of all expected travels to the Chief of Staff.
“As far as possible, meetings and workshops should be done within the official environment or government facilities; Government sponsored external training and Staff Development activities at the Office of the President, Ministries and SOEs, must be put on hold for 2023 financial year. Reduction of expenditure on appointments including salary freezes together with suspension of certain allowances like housing, utilities and clothing, etc. A freeze on new tax waivers for foreign companies and review of tax exemptions for free zone, mining, oil and gas companies. A hiring freeze for civil and public servants. No new government agencies shall be established in 2023. There shall be no hampers for 2022”.
IMF CONDITIONS
FOR BAILOUT
Indeed, some of these measures, are already in place, however, for the government to muster the necessary courage to ensure that they are enforced to the letter, has been the major problem. It is the hope of many Ghanaians that this time round, the government will put the necessary mechanism in place to ensure an effective monitoring of the process and the implementation of the additional policies and programmes. Already, many are of the firm belief that these are some of the conditions attached to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) offer, to bail the country out of the current economic mess.
AGENDA 111 HOSPITAL PROJECT TO SUFFER
While the majority of Ghanaians do sympathise with the government for the situation it finds itself in now and, therefore, has to succumb to some of these pressures from the IMF for the needed financial bailout, many are also of the view that the freeze on employment within the civil and public services, is a serious development which the government has to take a second look at the policy, since it will not serve the best interest of this nation whatsoever. When this policy is allowed to be implemented as it stands next year, certain critical and vital areas such as the health and education sectors of the economy, will suffer unduly. Already our health facilities across the country are challenged with shortage of professionals such as doctors, dentists, nurses, cardiologists, laboratory technicians, radiographers and X’ray technicians among others, while our universities, colleges, polytechnics, Junior and Senior High Schools lacked the required manpower to manage that sectors. The government flagship Agenda 111 Hospital project is likely to face a major setback as a result of the freeze on employment. The new district hospitals, currently under construction will face manpower problem. Placing a total ban on employment for the next two years, will deal a major blow to our dear country.
PRECARIOUS GRADUATE UNEMPLOYMENT
We are in a country where graduate unemployment has been a major headache to the extent that today, Ghana has in existence, Unemployed University Graduate Association (UUGA). The National Labour Commission estimates a staggering unemployment figure of 700,000. Roughly, 53 per cent of recent graduates are either unemployed or underemployed. The average university graduate, needs up to half a year to find their initial employment if any. According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census by the Ghana Statistical Service, more than 13 per cent of Ghana’s economically active population are out of work.
When graduates find themselves unemployed, poor, psychological, physical and emotional health and well-being may follow. This impacts on the motivation and drive to actively seek employment, which in turn lessens the probability of unemployed graduates securing employment in the labour market. The underlying causes of youth employment in Ghana, include inadequate job creation despite relative good economic growth, poor access to, and quality of education and a mismatch in skills appropriate to the labour demands. In order to promote youth employment in Ghana, it is important to align formal education programmes and skills development initiatives in the context of fast changing labour market that requires new and different skill sets and to adapt to new technology.
TUC STANCE ON EMPLOYMENT FREEZE
As we speak now, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella body of workers in Ghana, is vehemently, opposing the government’s decision to place a moratorium on employment in the civil and public services in 2023. Its Deputy General Secretary, Joshua Ansah, said the group was not in favour of a freeze on employment in the services and took steps to prevent it by engaging the IMF team which came into the country. According to him, the TUC was disappointed in the government for the move, describing it as “a stab in the back because government promised not to do so”. He assured that the TUC would discuss the issue with its social partners and respond appropriately.
Many have suggested that in order to cut down government expenditure and save cost, the government should take immediate steps to downsize its ministers and other political appointees, re-align some of the ministries to take other responsibilities since there are a lot of duplications in the functions of some of the ministries. Expenditures on some of these ministries can be channelled into productive areas of the economy. There are a lot of wastes in public expenditure which need to be curtailed in order to conserve the needed revenue to prosecute our development agenda.
DOWNSIZING GOVERNMENT AND CUTTING WASTES
Placing a moratorium on employment by freezing employment in civil and public services cannot in itself be the panacea for our present economic challenges. The ghost names in the public sector payrolls must be completely eradicated to introduce sanity into the system. The extravagance and opulent lifestyles of some of our ministers and other office holders need to be checked as we find solutions to our hydra-headed challenges.Yes, government has introduced far-reaching measures to cut down public expenditure as requested by the IMF, but the leadership must lead by example by reducing the present size of government and refrain from unnecessary expenditures at the presidency. For instance, the tendency of conveying a special Presidential Chair to and fro by V8 vehicle to state function across the country by the Office of the President must cease forthwith. Besides, the large convoy of state vehicles that always follows the President to public functions both internally and externally must be stopped to save the needed revenue.
LACK OF INTEREST IN GRADUATES’ WELFARE
It is quite obvious that our policymakers and for that matter the government and its political appointees, are only interested in churning out a large chunk of graduates yearly from our various universities and other tertiary institutions, just for cheap political propaganda. How these graduates will manage to secure the needed jobs or employment is not their priority or business at all. If really, they care for these graduates, they would not have accepted this bitter pill from the IMF of putting a freeze on employment.
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By Charles Neequaye
Features
Another opportunity is available
Another celebration of Easter, which is associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Saviour of the world, has just gone by.
This is not the first time such a celebration has taken but it has been celebrated each year, ever since I was old enough to appreciate things happening around me.
During the festivities, many people become holy and begin to rededicate their lives to God, through his beloved son Jesus. Many people make resolutions about how they are going to become committed to God, how they are going to change the way they have been living their lives and change for the better, how they are going to demonstrate love to their neighbours etc.
Give them say three months and you will find them forgetting about the resolutions they made. Those of us who belong to this group, a new opportunity has now been offered for us, so we can stick to our resolutions.
Easter has always been a time of reflection, especially for Christians. It is a time for stock taking to see where we stand with our faith in our creator and our status as to where we are on our walk with God and therefore his son, Jesus Christ.
It is a period in which the death of Christ takes on a deeper meaning and the significance of it becomes very much appreciated. It affords believers an opportunity to critically reassess our lives and to read just our way of life, so we could still be on the narrow path to heaven.
During the Easter period, an atmosphere of divine visitation can be felt by those who are spiritually inclined. Testimonies abound of miraculous encounters during Easter seasons.
Watching the Passion of Christ movie after church last Sunday, I really experienced a deeper connection to the suffering that Christ endured from when he was taken to Pontius Pilate up to when he said “It is finished’’ on the cross.
On the social front, it is a great time for reconnecting with members of our families, a time of reconnecting with friends, contributing to the development of our local communities etc.
This is the time when those who are outside the country, come home to interact with family members especially their parents, who they have not interacted with face-to-face for a long time.
It is true that due to technological advancement it is now possible to interact with friends and family but it is not the same as face to face interaction. There is the disturbing side to this celebration which requires that efforts be made to cause attitudinal change.
Some people see this occasion as an avenue for promiscuity and all they look forward to is an opportunity to get someone to sleep with, despite the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV.
If we want to see improvement in our lives both spiritually and physically, then we must prayerfully consider the resolutions we make now, so that God will grant us the grace and determination to achieve them. Let us focus a bit more on the spiritual than the physical.
Let us plan on how to improve say our prayer life, how to manifest the gifts of the spirit and not how to get the latest vehicle, and things of that nature.
The Bible exhorts that we should seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things that we need, shall be given to us, according to Matthew 6:33. Instead of going by this directive, we usually turn it upside down and seek what we perceive us our needs first before seeking that of God, no wonder things usually do not turn out the way we expect. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
Features
Who knows tomorrow?
Recently a friend posted a sad news on his Facebook page, announcing the death of a school mate who had passed away, suddenly. The report had it that he was on his way to the airport to take a flight to Ghana.
I am sure this man had already informed the wife or a friend or a work colleague at work that he was returning home but he was not to return as a human being but as a dead body.
Such is life and so we need to be circumspect in how we go about things in life. The Bible reminds us that we are like grass which at one point in time looks elegant and the next moment becomes withered according to Psalm 90:5 and 6. It is for this reason that we need to guard our hearts with the word of God so that we shall be motivated to do the right thing, at all times.
This will enable us live on this planet, free from all sorts of troubles in our personal lives, even if we ignore the question of Heaven and Hell. Living a disciplined life delivers us from any kind of trouble as the Bible declares in Galatians 5:23 that against such there is no law.
The uncertainty surrounding our lives on earth is the more reason why people should commit their lives into the hands of the one who created it, in the first place unless you believe that the world created itself and that it appeared from nowhere.
Otherwise, the logical thing to do is to recognize the authority of the creator and surrender to his Lordship. Heaven is real and Hell is real, so for us who know the truth and have received Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, the onus lies on us to encourage our relations who have not believed and received Jesus into their lives, to do so.
We are a couple of days from another Easter Resurrection celebration and an opportunity to reflect on our lives in relation to the significance of Easter. In the Bible, the only occasion Jesus, Saviour of the world commands us to celebrate is his death and resurrection.
He never commanded his followers to celebrate his birth but like everything else, we chose to ignore Jesus’s instructions and decided to do what pleases us, just like our forefather and mother in the Garden of Eden.
Let us deliberately choose to do things differently as Christians this Easter, so we can really benefit from all the blessings that the celebration of the death and birth of Jesus, has on offer. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is definitely insanity.
I choose to be different this Easter and I am believing God for a newness of life so God’s glory would be revealed in me to draw the unsaved to him. It is only when people especially the unsaved, see the character of Christ in us, that they can be convinced about the authenticity of Jesus, as Saviour of the world, who can bring transformation in their lives too.
This is what would motivate them to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Let us make this Easter a memorable one that will be cherished for a long time. It is also a period for reconciliation and it would be great if in the spirit of Easter, we would try to reach out to those who have wronged us or have a grudge against us.
This would demonstrate that we have indeed accepted Jesus and that our religious posture is not a sham. May the good Lord grant us the grace to love our neighbours as ourselves, demonstrating the love of God in the process.
Those who have lost their loved ones and Easter brings sad memories, may the good Lord comfort and strengthen you. God bless.
.NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’