Ghana’s new public sector pay policy is expected to be passed by October 2026, Dr George Smith-Graham, the Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), said on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra, he said the new policy would enable an Independent Emoluments Commission (IEC) to determine salaries across all public sector institutions and replace ad hoc political pay increases with a rules-based system.

The National Emoluments Policy, when implemented, would provide a productivity-linked salary structure, cap excessive allowances, rationalise the country’s wage bill, and prioritise fair and equitable wages while ensuring value for money across all public sector institutions.

Dr Smith-Graham said the initial draft of the policy was undergoing internal consultations, after which broader engagements would be held with the Judiciary, Executive, Legislature, Organised Labour, and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

The bill would then be submitted to the Attorney-General’s Department for finalisation before proceeding to Cabinet and subsequently Parliament, with all processes expected to be completed and the bill passed before the end of October 2026.

“The President, John Dramani Mahama, has already declared the IEC as an institution in transition, just as the Board. So, we are going through the processes. As I speak with you, the zero draft of the legal instrument is what we are working on,” he said.

A central innovation in the new framework would be the formal linkage of pay to productivity, an issue Organised Labour has long advocated.

A national productivity roundtable is tentatively scheduled for September to discuss the matter.

Dr Smith-Graham said the passage of the bill into law would give the IEC the legal mandate to enforce the principle of “equal pay for work of equal value” across all public institutions, while addressing challenges associated with the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).

He noted that the push for an independent emoluments commission was not new, tracing its origins to the 2011 Constitution Review Committee and subsequent presidential committees, all of which recommended the establishment of such a body.

Those recommendations, he noted, stemmed from widespread dissatisfaction with fragmented pay policies despite the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy and the desire to establish a single institution responsible for determining the salaries of all public sector workers.

“Nobody will be able to influence the decisions of the Commission as we envisage under the law,” he said.

“It has to be a completely independent entity, and once it is independent, we will not have a situation where politicians or others interfere in its decisions.”

Meanwhile, implementation would be phased, with the first stage covering Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), subvented agencies, and SOEs on the government payroll, using FWSC grades as the backbone.

Dr Smith-Graham explained that Article 71 office holders would be incorporated after a constitutional amendment and a national referendum, adding that: “The IEC will determine pay for everybody, from the President to workers in public sector organisations.”

On concerns about fiscal pressure, the CEO acknowledged that the new pay policy would entail costs, just as the SSSS did when the government’s wage bill rose from six per cent to 12 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during its initial implementation.

However, he said lessons learnt from the implementation of the SSSS would guide the Commission to operate within a defined national compensation envelope rather than making commitments the country could not sustain.

“It shouldn’t be the reverse – that you pay salaries and, after paying all the bills, realise there is nothing left in the coffers of the country.”

“The most sustainable way is for government to determine how much it wants to spend on compensation, and then the responsible institution ensures implementation within that framework.”

He called on all stakeholders to contribute their experiences to ensure a smooth transition to the IEC.

“At the end of the day, the country will have a pay policy that stands the test of time and is also sustainable,” Dr Smith-Graham said.