The Minister of Public Sector Reforms, Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, has said the ministry has begun an intensive exercise to correct the managerial and administrative lapses within the public sector to ensure its efficiency. Consequently, he said a comprehensive training programme at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) had begun to provide adequate training for workers at all levels within the sector to boost their expertise. Mr Owusu-Agyei said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday in response to questions on what the ministry was doing to ensure that management and administrative lapses, as exposed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of ParIliament, were corrected to move the reform process within the public sector forward. At the just-ended 10-day sitting of the PAC, it was revealed that many directors in the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) did not have the requisite managerial and administrative skills, although they occupied such high positions. These deficiencies, particularly in financial administration led to many lapses within the system which eventually led to the leakage of funds running into several billions of cedis. “The Chief Directors and the heads of departments in the sector have already had their turn and presently and presently those below them are also going for the training," he said. He said some revelations from the PAC were unfortunate but added that efforts were vigorously underway to correct the anomalies. Mr Owusu-Agyei said those who had already benefited from the training had started showing some positive results and noted that as time went by they would be in better positions to efficiently discharge their duties. He said it had been observed that staff at the lower levels within the sector were also not discharging their duties professionally, as they demanded money from clients before carrying out their duties. Mr Owusu-Agyei described the practice as unacceptable and I expressed the hope that the training would help stop or reduce it. Speaking earlier at a joint steering committee meeting between the ministry and donor partners in the country, Mr Owusu-Agyei had asked workers in the public sector not to use their level of remuneration as an excuse to collect bribes from their clients. He described the practice as unacceptable, adding, "You are paid to do a job and you need to do so without taking money or any form of present from a client before discharging your duties." Mr Owusu-Agyei said the government, aware of the low level of remuneration within the service, was embarking on pay reforms and expressed the hope that when completed, the workers would be better off. He asked the various trade unions, including the Civil Servants Association, to educate their members on the need to resist presents and the temptation to demand money from their clients in return for service rendered. Qn the aims of the meeting, he said it was to “provide the main forum for a joint review and coordination by the signatories of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) of their support for the implementation of the Public Sector Reform strategy.” The Chairman of the Public Services Commission, Professor S.N. Woode, for his part, stressed the need for trade unions to educate their members on the right things to do at work. Source: Daily Graphic