The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission says it has saved Ghana a substantial amount of GH₵345 million cedis through the first phase of a nationwide payroll monitoring exercise.

This initiative, which covered 120 public sector institutions in four regions, aimed to reduce the public sector wage bill and enhance transparency in public sector employment.

Speaking to JoyNews’ The Pulse Show host, Elton Brobbey, the commission's chief executive officer, Benjamin Arthur revealed that the company saved an impressive GH₵345 million last year through their diligent monitoring efforts.

“Last year, we made a lot of savings 345 million cedis from the monitoring exercise,” he said

However, the benefits of the initiative went beyond financial savings. The CEO emphasised that the exercise played a crucial role in enhancing the company's overall productivity.

“But it has other benefits on improving productivity, we go out to collect comprehensive information. We go out on the field to do some monitoring, we also monitor the payrolls,” he explained

He added “About 8% of what we pay in the public sector can be saved, and when we started doing the payroll monitoring, the analysis showed that for 2023 and 2024.”

He also highlighted the lessons learned through the monitoring process.

“Going forward, the payroll monitoring has thought us a lot. Of course, we also saw some anomalies of people who were entitled to some allowance who were not receiving,” he stated