Wages and salaries pose major risk to 2025 budget – Ato Forson
Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has sounded the alarm over rising public sector compensation costs, warning that wages and salaries pose a major risk to the successful implementation of the 2025 budget.
Speaking during a post-budget interview following the presentation of the Mid-Year Budget Review to Parliament, on the Citi breakfast Show on Friday July 25, Dr. Forson disclosed that the government has already exceeded its wage target for the first half of the year by GHS1.34 billion.
“The first risk for me for this budget happens to be wages and salaries,” he said. “Already we have exceeded the half-year target by GHS1.34 billion.”
According to Dr. Forson, the wage overrun stems largely from mass recruitment undertaken by the previous administration in the final quarter of 2024—particularly within the health, education, and security services sectors. These new hires were added to the government payroll beginning in January 2025, placing unexpected pressure on budgeted salary allocations.
“Sometimes you look at the numbers, they say they’ve employed X, but you go and realise they’ve employed Y,” he explained. “In some cases, the Ministry of Finance gave commencement authorization to employ 100, but they employed 180—and they are all on the payroll.”
The Finance Minister stressed that while the affected workers are Ghanaians and cannot simply be removed, the unauthorized recruitments have created a fiscal burden the current government must now manage.
“This is somebody’s mistake,” he said. “I have GHS1.34 billion. GHS1.34 billion times two may end up hitting about GHS2.7 billion by the end of the year, so it is a risk for me.”
Source: channelonenewsonline