No timeline has been given for when payment will eventually be made.

A memo, sighted by Citi News, from the University Registry also revealed that the University has been borrowing money for the past two months to pay salaries.

The memo, which was signed by the Registrar of the University of Ghana, Legon, Mercy Haizel-Ashia said the “processing and release of the compensation subvention for January and February has been delayed.”

“Therefore, payment for March 2018 salaries cannot be made as scheduled. It is not possible to borrow for a third month to pay salaries,” the memo added.

Assurances have been given that “efforts are being made by management to ensure that the delay does not prolong.”

Payment of salaries at the university is normally effected by the 25th day of the month.

The staff of the University would have been expecting their salaries this past Friday, March 23.

Carbon copy of 2014

The university was faced with a similar situation in February 2014 when salaries delayed.

The delayed payment of the salaries at the time was also due to cen­tral government’s failure to release subventions.

The memo from that time, also signed by Mercy Haizel-Ashia read: “The University Community is informed that the University is unable to pay salaries for February 2014 due to the delay in the release of Government Subvention.” Payment of salaries will be made as soon as the sub­vention is received.”

At that time, salaries delayed for about 10 working days before payment was eventually made.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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One of the MPs, Ras Mubarak, who raised the concern on the floor of Parliament, said they are yet to be paid their February salaries, two days into the month.

The Kumbungu MP, in asking the Speaker the exact day Members of Parliament are expected to their salaries said: “We are currently in the new month and Members of Parliament have still not received their salaries.I want to find out from the leader if this will be the norm and whether or not Members of Parliament will be receiving their salaries for this year.”

The Member of Parliament for Asuogyaman,Thomas Ampem Darko, also indicated on the floor of Parliament that their salaries had been delaying for sometime now.

He said that the situation is very worrying, especially in a season when most MPs are gearing up for 6th March celebrations in their respective constituencies.

“There is a particular trend that has started over the last couple of months that is getting most of us worried and the trend is that when the month ends we do not receive our salaries. The last month, we received our salaries after the 10th. This month, today is the second and there is no sign of us getting our salaries and we are worried.”

“Every MP is complaining. This is not about those of us on the left. Everyone is complaining. We are going into our constituency for 6th March. There is a lot of expenditure ahead of us but there is nothing showing in our bank accounts.”

MPs averagely earn about GHC 13,000 every month. They also get other benefits and allowances.

Financial constraints

Parliament has for sometime now been battling with financial challenges.

In October 2014, there were similar delays in payment of financial benefits for Members of Parliament, which sparked renewed anger in the House.

In that same year, the House was forced to postpone its resumption date from May to June due to financial constraints.

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By: Marian Ansah & Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Questions about how much top executives earn, how that aligns with the interest of shareholders/stakeholders, the strategies for creating the said alignment, the role of the board of directors, how much of a say the shareholder has on the pay in question, the possibility of clawing back some of the pay under a given set of circumstances, to mention a few, form the warp and woof of what has come to be known within the corporate governance spectrum as “executive compensation”.

Based on the assumption that top executives of a company are not easily fungible, there is a general belief that they ought to be compensated in a befitting manner.

In doing so, the traditional tensions within the corporate form, come to the fore. Ordinarily, shareholders invest in the business and the executives, whether they are shareholders themselves or not, manage the business. The board of directors, whose composition almost always includes the CEO exercise oversight. Thus the manner in which executive compensation is arrived at is considered by some to amount to self-dealing even if the CEO may not be a member of the compensation committee in particular.

The executives extract perquisites by way of their earnings and bonuses. The shareholders, who are the residual claimants, may earn dividends if the company is able to meet its obligations after the payments. In Ghana, an ordinary resolution suffices for the declaration of dividends but the amount does not exceed what the board of directors recommends. There is always the danger that dividends may not be declared although the executives continue to be compensated. Even where dividends are declared, they may be meagre compared with the compensation of top executives. Shareholders may sue (derivative actions) but some experts believe the “Wall Street Walk” (selling of shares) may be the most efficient approach.

The rather taut relationships within the corporate form, resulting from the foregoing analysis, are global in nature. Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, Reckitt Benckiser, Citi Group, Royal Dutch Shell etc., have had different levels of contention over executive compensation.

Although unheard of some decades ago, it is now commonplace to find attempts by boards of directors to align executive compensation with shareholder interests. Thus, it is not uncommon to tie executive compensation to company performance. For listed companies, this may include stocks and stock-options (through the financial instrument of the “call” option).

In the US, reforms in 1993 capped deductible executive compensation at $1million, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 hemmed in certain advancements to executives and the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 gave shareholders a “say on pay” even if in precatory terms only. The 2010 Act also required certain disclosures with respect to “golden parachutes” during mergers.

The Wall Street Journal reported on July 8, 2011, that although non-binding, “say on pay” votes had caused executive compensation modifications in some top corporations.

Prior to that, on January 20, 2007, the Economist reported that 80% of Americans were of the opinion that executive compensation was too high. Not many people will forget the backlash that the CEOs of Ford, Chrysler and GM suffered in 2008 when they flew private jets to bailout talks in Washington D.C.

The UK took the lead on “say on pay” as far back as 2003 with respect to companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. In April, 2017, BP announced a 40% cut on the annual pay award of Bob Dudley, its CEO. It is reported that this was as a result of the vote of shareholders against the CEO’s pay. Although that vote is non-binding, the effect is obvious.

Australia and Sweden have similar provisions. In the Netherlands and Norway, the shareholder votes are actually binding on top executives.

In Ghana, the public debate over executive compensation is nascent. As the discussion deepens, it is expected that the focus will not merely be on the state-controlled entities.

Indeed, the teaching of Company/Business Law must be modernized to include the corporate governance processes as well as the corporate finance undercurrents for this key aspect of business law.

In instances where the Government is the sole “shareholder” and thus appoints all the directors on the boards, as well as the CEOs and in effect the leading executives, the real control is of a political nature. Given our constitutional arrangements, the Government and Parliament need to fall on sound corporate governance expertise to free us of this political stranglehold. The introduction by law of truly independent directors and the effective divesting of shareholding may be key approaches in this direction.

Again, the pervading situation where companies especially the publicly traded ones tend to have one or two huge shareholders has rendered directorial “elections” mere formalities where these “owners” invariably have their way.

The Listing Rules of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) needs another look. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) needs to re-strategize as well. After all, it is the publicly traded companies that set the tone for the development of the principles and practice of corporate governance in a free-market economy.

In the end, more active dispersed/diffused shareholders in these listed companies may rope in the commercial courts to develop jurisprudential guidance in this virtually under-developed area of Ghana’s company law and practice.

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By: Robert Nii Arday Clegg

The author is the Managing Partner at Nii Arday Clegg & Co., a corporate law firm. He holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in Corporate Law, Finance & Governance Concentration from Harvard Law School with cross-registration in Boards of Directors & Corporate Governance from Harvard Business School.

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[contextly_sidebar id=”j1RghsAJfzwWUzA6HUU2GBZjZcwxk1Bt”]The latest Ghana Labour Force Survey Report by the Ghana Statistical Service said the men in the urban localities of the region demand as much as 1,604 cedis a month as pay.

According to the report, women in the Ashanti region, demand the highest minimum wage per month.

The survey, which adopts the relaxed definition of unemployment in Ghana, puts Ghana’s unemployment rate at 11.9 percent as at 2015.

It noted that, on the average, the unemployed want a monthly salary of 297.25 cedis. This represents about thirteen percent more compared to the national daily minimum wage of 264 cedis.

Men in the urban locality of the Upper West region were the second highest quoting 687.63 cedis.

The third, fourth and fifth, are quoted by men in Brong Ahafo, Volta and Central regions at 573.29, 573.08 and 507.45 cedis respectively.

Shockingly, men in the urban areas of the Greater Accra region quoted the 6^th highest figure of 225.91 cedis.

However, men in the urban areas of the Eastern Region demand the lowest monthly minimum wage of 128.32 cedis.

This is immediately preceded by Northern region, Upper East region and Ashanti region at 160.19, 164.55 and 213. 59 cedis respectively.

Meanwhile unemployed women in the Ashanti Region quoted the highest monthly minimum wage of 407.53 cedis.

The second highest was quoted by women in the Volta Region at 268.54 cedis.

The third, fourth and fifth, were quoted by women in the Brong Ahafo, Upper East and Eastern regions with 215.08, 206.17 and 198.76 cedis respectively.

In sharp contrast, women in urban areas of the Western region demand the lowest monthly minimum wage of 132. 34 cedis.

They are immediately preceded by women in the Upper West, Northern and Central regions with 183. 35, 187.03 and 188 cedis respectively.

Like their male counterparts, women in urban areas of the Greater Accra region emerged at the eighth position with 183.43 cedis.

According to the coordinators of the project, the differences in economic conditions partly accounted for the wage quotations for the respective areas.

Commenting on the development, Labour Analyst, Austin Gammey, cautioned that it will be challenging for employers as Ghana’s economy compels businesses to offer lower wages due to high cost of operations.

“How much an employer afford to pay is based upon his or her income; that will have to be considered, and that is why I mentioned trade unions, employers, and government would have to take a look at the way we negotiate and engage with one another.”

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Men in Western region demand highest pay in Ghana – Report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the contractors, government owes them over five hundred million Ghana cedis spanning a period of six months.

One of the affected contractors, Daniel Tanor, told Citi News the Ministry of Finance has delayed the payment, a situation he says is crippling their businesses, since most of them go for loans to pre-finance the projects .

“For the past five, six months, we have not been paid. We have been going to GETFund premises all this while, and the story has been for us to come the next week that but nothing happens. We have been able to find out that Ministry of Finance has not given GETFund money to pay the contractors. We came to conclusion that, the only thing we can do is to demonstrate. If we do that the President will listen to us. If we are not paid up to Tuesday 11:00am,  all GETFund contractors will hit the streets.

“We will move to the presidency, that is the Flagstaff House. If we do not see the president then we will go to his House and tell him that banks are chasing us, even on Xmas day some of the contractors were not even at home because suppliers and banks were chasing all of them. Government is owing contractors more than 500 million cedis. Individually, 2 million, 5 million. We are urging all GET Fund contractors to converge on GET Fund premises  on Tuesday morning. We will walk to the Flagstaff House. We are more than 1,000”

GETFund contractors threaten to lock school buildings 

In July 2014, Getfund Contractors Association threatened to lock all school buildings they had constructed if government failed to pay outstanding arrears owed for the work done.

The Association said the lack of payments to its members was negatively affecting their families.

In an interview with Citi News, a member and contractor of the Getfund Contractors Association, George Agbo, indicated that locking the various schools would be necessary if payments are not made.

“After the demonstration, if nothing is done, we will go to all the schools and close them down. We will go to all the schools and take our keys”.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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With less than three months to the December polls, a number of labour unions including the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA), Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), and recently staff of the Electoral Commission, have intensified demands for increased salaries and allowances owed them.

But the Head of Public Affairs for the commission, Earl Ankrah, says his outfit cannot yield to all these demands.

“Most of these demands are not consistent with the way the policy works. When you talk to GHOSPA, they will tell you they are not enjoying interim market premium…and for seven years they have been going back and forth and nothing has been happening. That is not true. GHOSPA is enjoying interim market premium. The issue with their market premium is when they compare theirs with others. So it is not about what is on their plate before them. It is about what they are seeing on someone else’s plate…”

According to him, some labour unions still have challenges with the payment of their market premiums because they have failed to go through the right procedures to have their concerns addressed.

He therefore asked the unions to use the appropriate procedures by channeling their concerns to the National Labour Commission.

“We are not supposed to take decisions based on these ultimatums.. If you are not happy with Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, there are processes you have to go through; you take your case to the National Labour Commission, they will listen to both sides and take a decision; but unfortunately those procedures are not followed religiously.”

Last year, President John Mahama told striking doctors he would not yield to their demands , warning it would open the flood gates for other public sector workers to make similar financial demands, a situation he believes the economy could not sustain.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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