The government has no intention of lifting the freeze on public sector employment anytime soon, with the IMF bailout still in full swing and government far short of meeting its set targets.
A letter jointly signed by the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, and the Bank of Ghana Governor and addressed to the body notes that the freeze would be kept intact throughout next year, as well as a cutback on existing employees within the sector.
Ghana went for an Extended Credit Facility (ECF) of $918m from the IMF which came with certain conditions, one of which was the notorious freeze on government employment.
One of the IMF’s main conditions for approving the facility was for the government to reduce the public sector wage bill – or at least get it down to a reasonable % of government revenue. To qualify for the next tranche of the facility, government has to get the wage bill down to 35% of GDP by the end of the year – but it currently hovers around 49.2%.
The letter promises keeping the freeze in place and letting more people from the sector go as means of attempting to meet the target, whilst in the meantime calling for the Fund to process the release of the funds.
The government freeze on employment has been one of the most unpopular measures ever taken by the NDC and with elections coming up, this  is unlikely to bode well for their chances.
 

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