Salaries will be paid in the short term – Government assures public servants

The government has assured that salaries of public sector workers will be paid without delay despite global and local economic challenges.

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, during Thursday, February 24 Parliamentary sitting hinted that government may not be able to pay salaries, if something drastic is not done in the next 3 months.

He indicated that this was information that had been made available to him.

“Honorable Members, the information at my disposal and this is not to discourage the committee from doing their work. If something is not done within the next three months, government may not even be able to pay salaries,” he said.

But in an interview with Accra–based Joy FM, Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah said he appreciated the genuine concerns raised by the Speaker.

He stated, however, that the government was presently not facing any liquidity challenges in paying salaries.

Asked if public sector workers should be worried about their salaries in the next three month, the Ejisu MP said the government will be able to meet the remuneration demands of workers.

He cautioned that the country may face some challenges in the future considering the current impasse between Russia and Ukraine together with government’s inability to generate revenue internally.

“I believe that salaries will be paid. In fact, this year January salary has been paid. February is just about to end, I believe that…at the moment we haven’t seen any challenges of liquidity for the government and I believe salaries will be paid.

“But I agree with Speaker when he says that if you look at the world climate and where we are going and the fact that we are still not being able to ramp up revenue measures in the 2022 budget, we could face some serious challenges. So let’s all rally together as a people and resolve this problem before it gets out of hand. So the assurance is that salaries will be paid,” he said.

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