Former Head of the Civil Service, Dr Alex Glover-Quartey, has warned that Ghana cannot expect quality public service if public servants are poorly paid and their working conditions are neglected.

He said the country must recognise the important role played by public servants in implementing government policies, applying rules and regulations, and keeping the machinery of government running.

Dr Glover-Quartey made the remarks on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, at the launch of his autobiography, 'The Bureaucrat', at Ridge Church in Accra.

He said one of the issues Ghanaians often failed to appreciate was the importance of people who chose to build careers in public service.

“The importance of the public servant, the man or woman who has decided to make a career in serving the country, in applying rules and regulations, in applying or implementing policies that they had worked together to formulate,” he said.

According to the former Civil Service chief, the conditions under which public servants work have a direct impact on the quality of service they provide.

He cautioned that the state could not expect dedicated and effective service while failing to pay workers adequately or provide decent conditions of service.

“If you want to give a pittance to the public servant, you don't care even whether he eats or not, how he goes to work, what happens to him, whether he is able to feed his family or not, you are going to get the quality of service that comes with it,” Dr Glover-Quartey said.

He added that the state must take the welfare of public servants seriously if it wanted to improve the standard of public administration.

“So if we pretend to pay public servants and not care about their conditions of service, then we will have the quality of service that we get,” he said.

Dr Glover-Quartey also expressed concern about what he described as the negative impact of some politicians on institutions and values in the country.

He said Ghanaians needed to pay greater attention to the quality of political leadership and the effect politicians could have on national institutions.

“The second thing is the danger of the calibre of most of our politicians in this country. We don't realise the extent to which they undermine everything we hold of value,” he said.

He acknowledged that changing the situation would not be easy but called on citizens to become more vocal about issues affecting the country.

“So as a people, I know there is very little that can be done, but if we can gradually change things and make things what they should be, then we need to wake up and speak more,” he said.

He criticised the tendency of some citizens to complain privately about problems without taking steps to address them.

He said people should not simply observe wrongdoing or poor governance and remain silent.

“Don't be like those I hear about all the time. They will go and see something and complain in their rooms, but they don't do anything else about it,” he said.