Executive Director of Imani Ghana, Mr Franklin Cudjoe says state agencies, which can pay themselves should be weaned off government payroll as part of measures to cut down the growing wage bill.

According to him, agencies such as the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Forestry Commission, Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and the Security and Exchange Commissions (SEC) were capable of “taking care of themselves.”

In a reaction to calls for government to curtail further payment of salaries using the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) because it was unsustainable, Mr Cudjoe said, “what is essential is to investigate the wage bill itself by checking payroll fraud, and taking a look at the number of subvented agencies that can take care of themselves.”

Dr Akoto Osei, a former Finance Minister, at a Breakfast Meeting organised by the Daily Graphic and Fidelity Bank on the state of Ghana’s economy had called for the commencement of negotiations for retrenchment in the public sector since government could not continue to pay all it was paying now as salaries.

However, speaking to Joy FM, Mr Cudjoe noted that the Ho summit on the SSPP set up a committee to identify subvented agencies which could be taken off government support without delay.

“I think there is some opportunity there because most of these agencies can take care of themselves. DVLA, Forestry Commission, Food and Drugs Authority,  and Security and Exchange Commissions, and there are a host of them who are already willing by the way to be weaned off government payroll. And so I think that we need to do that,” he said.