Presidential staffer Dennis Miracles Aboagye, who is also a leading communicator for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has asked the National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, to understand the types of government sector jobs before he attempts to respond to the data on the over 2 million jobs the government has created.
Last week, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia shared a comprehensive data on jobs created by the government, detailing number of jobs under Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as evidence for the claim he made on the government creating over 2 million jobs in direct public and independent public sectors.
The NDC’s Sammy Gyamfi, however, tried to discredit the data provided by the Vice President by comparing it with the number of public sector jobs listed in the Minister of Finance’s budget, which he said was lower than the Vice President’s figures.
It has, however, emerged that Sammy Gyamfi rather limited his claim to only public sector workers being paid by the Controller and Accountant General and left out workers in government agencies who are paid directly by their respective agencies and not through the Controller and Accountant General.
In a viral video which shows the two in a radio discussion, Dennis is seen completely taking on Sammy Gyamfi’s assertions by pointing out to him the difference between the two types of government/public sector jobs and how the Vice President classified the two.
After the programme, Dennis wrote an article on his Facebook page to school Sammy Gyamfi on why the budget statement to Parliament by the Finance Minister could have only captured the number of worker paid by Controller, and not include workers paid by agencies directly.
Below is Dennis Miracle’s write up.
I have seen a feeble attempt by the National Communications officer of the NDC to question the Job creation data published by our Vice President H.E Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia backed by verifiable data
I am only addressing this because of the arrogant manner in which the National communications officer of the NDC is peddling this ignorance and his constant insult at the Vice President and calling the Vice President a liar.
First of all, the Vice President used the phrase “Job Creation” and not controller and accountant General’s department employment.
What Sammy Gyamfi hasn’t realized inspite of all the education I tried to give him yesterday on Asempa 94.7 FM is that, the Budget document Page 230, Appendix 7 which he refers to, covers only public sector Employees who are paid directly from the Consolidated fund and controller & Accountant General and whose compensation have a direct bearing on the account balancing of the finance minister.
There are two categories of Public sector Employees:
CATEGORY 1: Those employed by government and paid directly from the consolidated fund. E.g Teachers, Civil Servants, Nurses, Doctors, Local Government service stuff, security services etc.
CATERGORY 2: Those employed by subvented Public agencies and Public Enterprises who are paid by the institutions themselves and not through central government (controller). Example; GNPC, NPA, NLA, Ghana Gas, Cocobod, PBC , Ghana Water, ECG, VRA, Ghapoha etc.
Now the finance minister in his budget reading, as captured under Appendix 7, Page 230 of the 2023 budget, provides budget ceilings for the category 1 employees, whose compensation affects the finance minister’s Wage Bill.
All the other Public sector institutions whose wages are not paid directly by the finance minister are not captured on that table. Of course the finance minister doesn’t budget for the salaries of staff recruited by Mr. sammi Awuku at NLA or Dr. Mustapha Hamid of NPA or Mr. Aidoo of Cocobod, so you don’t expect the finance minister to capture their staff strength in his budget in an appendix labeled OLGS & RCCs budget ceilings.
There’s no where in the 2023 budget or any of the budgets since 2017 for that matter that has a table of all public sector employees in Ghana. The Appendix 7 Table in the budget indeed, only captures one category of pubic sector employees which is the category 1 public sector employees who are paid directly by the CAGD.
A quick point of proof is the fact that if you look at the same 2023 budget statement, Page 114 Paragraph 548, labeled JOB CREATION IN COCOA, which the finance minister reported jobs of about 147,000 created through the implementation of the various Cocoa sector revitalization programmes. Example, The unemployed youth recruited to handle cocoa Hand Pollination, cocoa Mass Spraying etc.
Sammy GYAMFI should show us, on the Appendix 7 Table, where this 147,000 Cocobod jobs have been reported. Of course they are not reported there because, that table is meant for only recruitment of staff being paid directly by the finance minister through controller and these Cocobod employees do not fall under that category. So you will find the Agric extension officers on the appendix 7 table but not find the cocoa Mass Spraying employees there. The Agric extension officers are paid by controller, the cocoa mass spraying employees are paid by Cocobod.
Category 2 employment is not and cannot be captured on the Appendix 7 Table. It will be anomaly.
That notwithstanding, each of these category 2 Public sector institutions have mother ministries and that is why on the Vice Presidents Data sheet, you will realise they are captured under the mother ministry but has another Colours listing the specific agencies covering these numbers.
Reference the Vice President Data sheet, take a look at No. 6, Ministry of Transport, you would realize, 3rd column under Agency, Ghana Maritime Authority, Ghana Shippers Authority, DVLA, Metro Mass Transport and several other Public entities are captured there under ministry of Transport before the figures year on year are shown.
Appendix 7 of the 2023 Budget referred to by Sammy Gyamfi doesn’t capture all these agencies published by Veep and rightly so because their staff wages are not paid by the Finance Minister and do not feature in the finance ministers wage bill budgeting.
I have said and I keep saying, that, Sammy Gyamfi’s constant attempt to peddle falsehood and untruth which he does mostly through insults and attacks on the Vice President must be checked. And must be checked through only one way, the Facts!
This report by the Vice President is the easiest verifiable report ever if the NDC were a serious political party. Instead of rushing to come write insults at Vice President, visit SSNIT and reconcile the enrollment figures with the figures reported, visit the Institutions and verify the figures reported and then you can take your time to trace and identify the gaps but alas, the usual NDC, incompetent in Government and incompetent in opposition and is only counting on the isolated challenges of the government as an automatic return to government.
The Next time the NDC decides to contend on data and issue based debate with the Vice President, they should be sure to first read wide before any attempt.
When you hear sammy Gyamfi speak, get your books, data and reports, and read for yourself, otherwise he will lead you into a ditch.
He’s a very smart young man but he is very deliberate about ignoring the truth, resisting the facts, embellishing it with insults to achieve political advantage by sparking the emotions and sentiments of his readers and listeners. If you put 100 of the issues he raises to test, he won’t have even 10% passing the fact check.
Let’s eschew insults, let’s just be brutal and confrontational about the debate but only through use of facts and nothing else.