Reform process is on course – Owusu-Adjei

The process to raise the efficiency of the public and civil service in order to ensure high productivity and service delivery is on course, Mr Samuel Owusu-Adjei, Minister of Public Sector Reforms said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Meet the Press series, Mr. Owusu-Adjei said the reforms were being moved through a series of phases with the intention to achieve sustainable reform while making real step changes in performance in the public sector as each phase was completed.

“In this way, the overall duration of the programme is determined by the robustness of each phase and the time that it takes rather than an arbitrary timeframe,” he said.

The Meet the Press series are to provide Ministries the platform to share their policies and programmes with the public.

Mr Owusu-Adjei said improving the performance of the government machinery in terms of cost effectiveness and preparing it to respond adequately to the needs of customers was at the core of the agenda.

He said since the establishment of the Ministry of Public Sector Reform and the approval of a comprehensive reform strategy by cabinet in August 2005, the Ministry had taken various initiatives to see the reform process through.

These include the training of 599 staff at the Ghana Institute of Public Administration in line with an implementation plan agreed with Public Services Commission, Office of the Head of the Civil Service and GIMPA, improved conditions of work towards creating a cleaner and safer environment in the government business area for service delivery, strengthening 23 re-vitalised client service units, printing of service charters and citizen charters.

Other areas are collation study on Human Resource practices and performance management in the public sector, which would culminate in a Human Resource Summit to be held in December this year.

In addition, the Ministry, in close collaboration with Public Records and Archival Department is instituting records management system on institutions with a pilot programme, which commenced this month in the Ministry itself.

On the reform of subvented agencies, Mr Owusu-Adjei said legal and legislative reforms were being undertaken to make the organisations more corporate, rationalise control procedures, increase managerial autonomy and alter the form and responsibilities of Boards of Directors, among others.

He said the subvented agencies bill passed into law in March 2006 provided the legal authority for interventions, system of categorisation and policy on creation of new subvented agencies.

Source: GNA