Government says the freeze on employment in the public sector is in line with plans to institute public sector reforms. It maintains the hold up is no World Bank conditionality. Last week, the Minority in Parliament, stated that Government has been compelled to halt employing persons to serve in the various public sector agencies as a precondition for financial support from the World Bank. The Minority felt vindicated when, the World Bank Country Director Ishaq Diwan announced that Government would be required to reform the public sector in order to enable Ghana secure a $1.2 billion loan facility from the bank. But speaking in an interview with Joy News, Deputy Finance Minister Seth Tekpeh said the move is primarily aimed at ensuring efficiency in the public sector and trimming expenditure. “It is also with a view to remove waste in the public sector for that matter so that we can meet the deficit target of 9.4 per cent,” he indicated. He dismissed suggestions that the freeze in employment had been brought on by the World Bank's conditionalities. Source: Joy News