The Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has charged Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to strive to implement some internal reforms and ensure that their organisations are able to render efficient and accountable public service and not rely on donors to fund these reforms.
“All our reforms have been supported externally, and I think we should along the line begin to see an end to this external support. We should begin to internalise these reforms and do them ourselves,” he said.
“The civil and public service should internalise the reforms without any external stimuli, and should ensure that the country can by itself carry out the reforms without any external support in both human and material resources,” Mr. Osafo-Maafo said.
According to him, the current situation wherein many reforms in the public sector are funded by foreign partners can be blamed for the little progress our public service has seen since its establishment to support government business.
The Senior Minister made these remarks at the official presentation of some vehicles and motorbikes under the Public Sector Reforms for Results Project (PSRRP) funded by the World Bank.
In his view, even though these supports are critical for development, public sector reforms should not wait for these events to avail themselves before action is taken to better their engagements with the public; but rather put in place mechanisms to constantly improve their services.
He further urged public servants to be conscious of their duty and desist from being incentivised by the service seekers before they carry out duties.
He said a strong public sector is needed to efficiently provide the needs of citizens, as well as for the development and growth of firms – which is essential for development of the country as a whole.
He intimated that it is therefore necessary for all parties involved to ensure that the public sector is sustained, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic because a collapse of public service would affect the lives of every Ghanaian.
“We have to know that as the public sector, our duty is to support the growth of others, especially the private sector. Our services are not for sale: it is an act to support government operations. It’s the duty of the public servant to render services such as the provision of passports and driver’s licences to Ghanaians, and no citizen should have to beg or pay charges outside the regulated fees for these services,” he added.
He stressed that it is necessary for public servants to ensure that their actions do not make access to their services burdensome to the public, because it is the right of Ghanaians to access these services.
Vehicles and motorbikes presentation
Government, through a World Bank facility, acquired and presented 25 vehicles and 23 motorbikes to selected Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to help improve service delivery of these entities.
The logistics’ presentation forms part of the Public Sector Reform for Results Project (PSRRP) under the Office of the Senior Minister. It is to help improve efficiency and accountability in the delivery of selected services by public entities.
The beneficiary MDAs included the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGR); Ministry of Monitoring and Evaluation (MME); Department of Birth and Deaths Registry (BDR); Driver and Vehicle Licencing Authority, DVLA; and the Office of the Senior Minister (OSM) itself.
