You entrust officials with $1m but pay them $400 – former Head of Civil Service slams salary structure

Dr Alex Glover-Quartey, the former Head of the Civil Service, is urging for improved remuneration for senior public servants in Ghana. He argues that officials entrusted with large amounts of public funds should be paid salaries that reflect the scale of their responsibilities, warning that inadequate pay could lead to corruption and abuse of office.

During an interview with Kafui Dey, Glover-Quartey recounted his efforts to secure higher salaries for officials, including proposing a monthly salary of about US$2,500 for Chief Directors in a meeting with representatives of the World Bank and a group from the United Kingdom. He questioned the logic of entrusting a senior official with the management of over US$1 million while paying them only about US$400 a month.

Glover-Quartey believes that Ghana cannot expect its civil servants to manage substantial public resources without corruption if they continue to receive inadequate salaries. He advocates for a compensation system that provides senior public servants with sufficient financial security while expecting them to reciprocate through professionalism and responsible management of public resources.

He also questions the provision of extensive utility benefits to senior officials when their salaries are not considered adequate, suggesting that these benefits could be abused. The issue of public-sector remuneration is now at the center of the debate about corruption, institutional performance, and accountability in Ghana's public administration.