Prof Gyampo: Open letter to the Government Statistician

Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician

I am a University Teacher and the Secretary of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG), the University of Ghana branch. But I write in my personal capacity as a public servant. I know the bigger body to which I belong, will interrogate and soon write. But I am writing ahead because my passion for labor interest in Ghana, dictates that I strike when the iron is hot.

Sir, I have noted with great concern, the contents of your inaugural lecture which lumped all public servants together and inter alia, indicated that they receive more than they produce.

As academic, you are well aware that such categorical assertions can only be made after empirical studies of the broader population of public servants, noting their heterogeneous features, competences, expertise and different lines of job descriptions. Unfortunately, your lecture does not appear to have done these.

Sir, until your political appointment as Government Statistician, you were a University Teacher too and you know we work more than we earn. Teachers produce nation builders like you, the Government Statistician, and undertake evidence-based research that provides the basis for meaningful policy making in Ghana. Yet we are paid pittance, and mocked that our very hard work is rewardable only in heaven.

With our lecture rooms overcrowded and understaffed, respectfully, how did you measure productivity? How did you measure productivity when lecturers are striving to teach with near non-existent laboratory equipment, basic teaching aids and buying reagents themselves from their own pocket? Per your assertion, is the seat of Government also earning more than it produces? There are different categories of public servants and you cannot lump all of them together. You could have nuanced your assertion in a manner that would have escaped the danger of committing the fallacy of converse accident.

Recently during our negotiations for better Conditions of Service, Government and our Employers agreed that our salaries do not commensurate our work output. This explains why they agreed to temporarily pay us some allowance and negotiate some proper and more commensurate Conditions of Service with us next year.

University Teachers will definitely take exception to any description that lumps all of us together as Public Servants and insinuate that we are probably being paid for little work done. If this is a way to psyche Labor as we prepare to go negotiate the review of the Single Spine Salary Structure, then I am sorry to say we are more than resolved to push for better conditions of service, and some of these disingenuous antics would not douse our determination.

All public servants who are angered and feel insulted by such a lecture that has served to stir a needless controversy should remain calm. For some of us can assure that, we will fight for better Conditions of Service that reflect their immeasurable output.

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Government Statistician

Prof Ransford Gyampo

Prof Samuel Kobina Annim