Labour Minister wants SOEs to help shape new public pay system

The Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment, Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, has urged Chief Executives of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to actively contribute to the development of Ghana’s proposed new public sector compensation system.

Mr Agyekum said the government was not seeking to impose a foreign model but to develop a home-grown, sustainable system based on broad consultation and the experiences of stakeholders within the public sector.

He therefore called on SOE CEOs to openly share their views, concerns and suggestions to help shape a compensation framework that would be effective and sustainable.

“This is not coming to take your powers. We want you to support, we want you to contribute, we want you to give any other input that will be able to help us to bring in something that is new. Let it be the best system,” he said.

The Minister was speaking in Accra on Friday at the opening of a day’s stakeholder engagement organised by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) with SOE CEOs on the transition to the proposed Independent Public Emoluments Commission (IPEC).

The engagement was held on the theme: “Towards an Independent, Equitable & Sustainable Compensation System: Stakeholders’ Perspectives on Ghana’s Public Sector Pay Reforms.”

Mr Agyekum said the consultation was necessary to build consensus around the proposed reforms and ensure that the new system reflected Ghana’s realities.

He assured the participants that President John Dramani Mahama fully supported the reforms and encouraged the SOE leadership not to withhold their views during the consultation process.

The Minister also addressed concerns that the proposed IPEC framework was targeted at office holders covered under Article 71 of the Constitution, saying the government was aware of the constitutional and legal processes that would have to be followed.

“We know it has to go through a process,” he clarified.

FWSC assures boards of continued role

The Chief Executive of the FWSC, Dr George Smith-Graham, also assured SOE boards that the proposed transition to IPEC would not take away their mandate.

He said under the proposed framework, boards would continue to assess their organisations’ business models and operating environments and submit evidence-based remuneration proposals to IPEC.

“What changes is not the relevance of the board, but the governance architecture within which its proposals are considered,” he said.

Dr Smith-Graham explained that equity in public sector compensation did not necessarily mean equal pay for all, but that differences in remuneration should have an objective, transparent and defensible basis.

He said such differences could be linked to factors including the size and complexity of an organisation, profitability, capacity to pay, productivity and market scarcity.

He further said IPEC would complement, rather than duplicate, the work of the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA).

Under the proposed arrangement, boards would originate remuneration proposals, SIGA would provide governance and financial performance perspectives, while IPEC would provide compensation oversight on behalf of government as shareholder.

The stakeholder engagement forms part of consultations ahead of the proposed IPEC Bill, which is expected to be laid before Parliament in October 2026.

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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.