Public Sector Compensation and Fiscal Discipline; A Perspective from Ghana

Ghana’s public sector compensation decisions have always been a complex arena where political and economic actors have waged battles to secure favorable outcomes. Public sector compensation decisions historically evoke a lot of tension and significantly affect fiscal discipline and overall country economic performance. Public sector compensation management is multi- dimensional and encompasses key variables such as politics, equity, justice, economics, technical design and change management. This study examines recent data that puts in perspective the challenges that Ghana faces as it embarks on a reset of governance including compensation decision choices. Using an integration of Kantian philosophy and Tichy’s Technical Political Cultural change management model, we examine key factors supported by data and insights to recommend potential solutions. Our position is that this is the moment for a reset to sustainably heal that painful Gordian knot which has become a painful sore in Ghana’s public sector HR architecture that never goes away. We conclude that Ghana needs five key factors that will be critical to facilitate a sustainably transformative public sector compensation architecture. These are a values and behaviors based performance management system, a deontologically driven compensation philosophy and a technical approach rooted in data and insights that frames the intersection of equity, fiscal discipline and financial sustainability, public compensation management as a key performance indicator of Gross Domestic Product and compensation education of key actors to drive sustainable reforms.