The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) is conducting a staff audit, and records update for its staff on the Internally Generated Fund (IGF) payroll aimed at strengthening the assembly’s payroll integrity.
Ms Ebi Bright, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) who announced this during a General Assembly meeting, said currently, TMA had over 385 IGF staff with a monthly commitment of nearly GH₵400,000.
Ms Bright said they were conscience-bound to address the assembly’s woefully low IGF wages, adding that they must also, as a matter of necessity, right-size the staff and ensure its productivity matched payroll, while ensuring that the workplace and environment safety and comfort, to build a workforce ready for a modern city.
“We are currently embarking on an audit, and records update for all staff on our IGF Payroll.”
This process would afford the clear opportunity to update personnel records, strengthen payroll integrity, and create a comprehensive employee database for future Human Resource (HR) management, establish a baseline for performance management and accountability systems, and plan training and capacity building,” she stressed.
The MCE further noted that the TMA, after the audit, would be positioned to assign or reassign to match capabilities to roles and planned output and be several steps closer to initiating the assembly’s imperative digitisation of its workplace and services.
She noted that they must transform their human capital, adding that she wanted people to feel safe and fulfilled at work, stressing that “I want all my staff, especially non-senior staff, to believe that you can make a meaningful career in serving the Tema Metropolis and, in effect, the country at large.”
She emphasised that excellence would be rewarded, regardless of political affiliation, noting that they would invest in the training of their staff for 21st-century governance and management of the city.
She said clear targets, regular monitoring, and fair consequences would create pathways for growth within TMA.
Ms Bright proposed an initiative called Talent Excellence Across the Metropolitan Assembly (TEAMA) to transform mindsets and capabilities in the administration of Tema.
She further said that the TMA’s Legal Department was currently being manned by only one lawyer, and considering the number of legal issues the assembly was involved in and the enormity of legal advice it would require going forward, they need to seek additional legal support.
“I have asked the Heads of the HR Department and Procurement to source for a retainer to complement the work of the department in the interim. Of course, I am already confident in the proactiveness and cooperation of every department and unit of the Assembly to build a culture of compliance and social regulation that restores institutional and social integrity to Tema,” she stated.
She said the TMA, did not have a single cameraman or camera to form the foundation for a multimedia unit, saying this was imperative in the present age where change communication and management, workplace culture, community interactions, surveys and feedback, industrial and diplomatic relations, tourism and trade, and the archival documentation for every conceivable purpose ,were arranged through audio-visual representation.