President John Dramani Mahama has said the proposed Independent Public Emoluments Commission (IPEC), which is to replace the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), will ensure that salaries and other compensation of chief executives and board members of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are linked to the performance of their institutions.
Already, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) has been engaging Organised Labour on the plans and why there is a proposal to replace FWSC with the proposed Independent Public Emoluments Commission (IPEC).
Touching on the issues on Thursday, President Mahama said the new IPEC will help bring greater consistency and transparency to public sector remuneration.
President Mahama was speaking at the 2026 Governing Boards and CEOs’ Conference organised by the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) in Accra.
He said the new commission would provide “an opportunity to establish a more coherent, transparent, equitable and sustainable” system for public sector remuneration, including pay within SOEs.
He said executive compensation “cannot be determined in isolation from institutional performance” and should reflect an enterprise’s financial position, productivity, achievement of agreed targets, service quality and the value it creates for the state.
President Mahama said board chairpersons, chief executives, managing directors and management teams of SOEs and other specified entities would be required to cooperate fully with SIGA and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission during the transition to the new body.
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He said they would also have to submit timely, accurate data on compensation, conditions of service, and financial performance, and comply with approved remuneration arrangements.
“No state-owned enterprise must maintain a compensation arrangement outside the established framework merely because of its corporate status or revenue-generating capacity,” he said.
President Mahama said institutional autonomy could not become “a licence for unjustified disparities, opaque compensation practices or remuneration that bears no relationship to performance.”
The President’s remarks came as SIGA presented its 2025 State Ownership Report, which showed that SOEs had moved from a net loss of GH¢2.26 billion in 2024 to a net profit of GH¢19.8 billion in 2025.
President Mahama cautioned that the improvement, while encouraging, needed to translate into sustained operational efficiency and stronger performance.
“You must not use profits that rightly belong to the Ghanaian people to finance the creature comforts of management and boards,” President Mahama told the gathering.
He linked the proposed pay reforms to the need for more dividends to be paid to the state rather than being absorbed by management and board benefits.
Dr George Smith-Graham, Chief Executive Officer of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, told the conference that his outfit and the Public Services Commission had piloted performance indicators in 15 institutions on the President’s instructions last year.
He said cooperation from chief executives “is not coming from the very top”.
Dr Smith-Graham said a security engagement with all chief executives, led by Dr Abdul-Baasit Bamba, would be held on September 25 as part of the transition process.
President Mahama also called for greater discipline among boards of SOEs.
He warned board chairpersons against taking up offices within their entities and reporting to work every day as though they occupied full-time executive positions.
He said boards should provide oversight rather than take responsibility for routine operational decisions, while chief executives should respect legitimate board oversight.
According to President Mahama, a board that assumed responsibility for day-to-day operational decisions weakened accountability through interference, while a chief executive who resisted legitimate board oversight also undermined the institution.
