The Minister of Public Sector Reforms, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom has reiterated that the setting up of the Fair Wages Commission by the government is in the best interest of the nation. The government announced in the 2007 Budget presented to Parliament a week ago that in spite of economic gains it had made, there were problems at the labour front, resulting partly from a distorted public sector salary structure, which was also poorly administered. It was therefore proposing to implement a new comprehensive public sector pay reform that would relate wage increases to productivity gains, cost effectiveness and efficiency. The body to do this, according the budget, would be the Fair Wages Commission, which would abolish all other state institutions currently performing same or related functions. However on Thursday the Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners, Ghana, challenged the rationale for setting up the Fair Wages Commission, saying it amounted to duplication of functions and waste of scare resources. Reacting to concerns raised about the FWC by the Institute of Human Resource Management Practioners, Ghana, the minister said the noise being made about the proposed FWC was unnecessary. Dr Nduom asked the partners to remain calm, explaining that the best interest of the nation was the guiding principle which informed the government’s decision to establish the FWC. He said the primary function of the Public Services Commission was to advise on wages and salaries which was different from the main functions of the FWC. Dr Nduom said that Cabinet was considering the specific functions of all administrative and legal institutions which had a role to play in public sector human resource and salary administration. “Cabinet is considering all that, cognisant of the fact that there are currently existing institutions carrying out some of what we are proposing to give to the FWC,” he said. Dr Nduom said preparatory work before the proposal for the establishment of the FWC had included the review of all administrative and legal institutions with roles in human resource and wage administration. He listed the institutions as the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment responsible for negotiating public sector wages, the Central Management Board and the Appellate Body set up to implement the Ghana Universal Salary Structure, the Prices and Incomes Board under the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning with the overall responsibility for incomes and the Ministry of Public Sector Reforms with the responsibility for pay reform. Throwing more light on the functions of the PSC, he said the commission was to advise on wages and salaries which was different from the main functions of the FWC, which would negotiate on behalf of the government, reviewing the grievances of unions and conducting regular job evaluation; functions which the PSC was not legally mandated to carry out. Dr Nduom said some of the functions of those legal institutions overlapped but pointed out that they were being considered for redress. “It could be that after the review, the government could decide to subsume the FWC under one of these institutions or make it an independent body”, he said. The Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners had said the proposed Commission should rather be a technical committee to be absorbed later by a restructured and well-resourced Public Service Commission (PSC), which legally is responsible for the job description and classification in the public sector. "Therefore, Parliament should not be approached with yet another Commission whose functions would duplicate some of the functions of the PSC," it said. At a press briefing in Accra, Mr Kwadwo Asare-Bediako, Chairman of the Institute raised various issues in the public sector and said it would be expedient to rather restructure, resource and reinvigorate the PSC to play its role effectively. He said the lack of a clear-cut job description and classification in the public sector had come about because of the flexibility in the salary structure. Mr Asare-Bediako explained that because of the flexibility in the system, government over the years had succumbed to political pressure, especially from organized labour, which had brought distortions in job classification. He said the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS) saw a weak job structure mainly because it suffered constant assault of pressure to place and/or promote people at levels without due recourse to performance management. Enumerating some recommendations to government, he called for total overhaul of human resource management in the public sector. This should be geared to achieve an integrated HR management founded on the concept of the state as a common employer, with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as business units. Mr. Asare-Bediako called for a clear public sector vision, which would help develop HR architecture to facilitate its attainment. Besides, he advocated a centralized HR Agency, which must be the PSC to be responsible for developing policies, standards and procedures on all HR activities in the public sector. "This agency should be the state's HR department, staffed with top level professionals and resourced to coordinate and advise the state as an employer and MDAs as managers on all HR issues. Mr. Asare-Bediako said a clear and comprehensive industrial relations policy must be developed to cover fundamental industrial relations philosophy, collective bargaining responsibility, procedures and machinery.