…Public Sector Reforms boss reveals
By Frederick ASIAMAH
December 2017 is expected to usher in an era that will upscale public sector reform efforts when a “Public Sector Reform Strategy” is launched.
The document, as referenced by Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister for Finance, will, among other things revisit the entire Human Resource personnel management within the public service.
“We will be considering our options carefully within the broader framework of the new Public Sector Reform Strategy (PSRS),” the minister said when he presented the 2018 budget to Parliament on Wednesday.
The man who has been in charge of the agency that has orchestrated the new document is Mr Thomas Kusi Boafo. In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Sector Reform Secretariat, he interacted exclusively with Business Day, highlighting changes that must occur in public sector institutions to give relevance to the upgrade in public services that the “Public Sector Reform Strategy” seeks to bring about.
Working under the Office of the President and reporting directly to Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo, Mr Kusi Boafo has pooled knowledge from stakeholders over a period of about seven months to develop this document that has a five-year timeline (2018-2023).
The reform process
The interview set off with Mr. Kusi Boafo setting the context for the strategic document. According to him, reforms are no joke: “…it’s a very, very hectic area because we deal with so many governmental organizations.
“We bring about their reforms because, as a government…your policies and programmes are carried through by public and civil servants who are in the ministries and the agencies.” Thus, before the citizens can benefit from whatever programmes you bring out, you must have very strong institutions in place and motivated staff – people who have the capacity to man those areas. So, it is not only about the reforms, the reforms go with technological changes, capacity building and also the psychological aspects; the motivation for public and civil servants.
“That is what we basically do and in terms of most of the reforms that we are currently looking at…we will soon come out with a national public sector reform strategy… The target is to bring about a citizen- and private sector-centred public sector,” Mr. Kusi Boafo revealed.
Therefore, this new document has been developed to build on “what we have already had… it’s going to be an improvement.” Hitherto, “We have the public sector reform document…, it wasn’t a strategy,” he points out.
Scope of document
The document takes a wide scope, essentially because “this time we want to aim at something,” according to the CEO.
There is supposed to be clear direction with progress measured at every stage by weighing the actual state of affairs against the ideal or expected state of affairs.
This will be achieved through the six pillars or programmes of the document, namely: Citizens and Private Sector Focus; Capable and Disciplined Workforce; Strengthening Public Sector Regulatory Framework; Modernisation and Improved Working Conditions; Strengthened Local Governance Structure and Digitized Public Sector Systems.
Each of these programmes will be implemented across the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MMDAs) and the financial commitments would be made to those structures.
Citizen charter and change
The ultimate beneficiaries of the reform have been given key recognition. The main pointer to this is supposed to be a “Citizen Charter” which, in seeking to build an informed and responsible citizenship will, among others, enumerate activities and service terms of the various public institutions. “So, we need citizen’s charter so that when you get to the organizations you know where they are and what they are about.
“So you don’t just go; even renewal of common license, people get to the organization and they have to see ‘goro boys’ because they don’t even know where to go.”
Therefore, public institutions are going to have to clearly tell the public what they are about. To further this, “we are going to develop websites where each institution will indicate what they do and where to go as a citizen when you have something to do and when you have a problem. Then, we are going to ensure quality of delivery of services.”
Mr. Kusi Boafo’s expectation is that once these processes kick in, “public sector workers will no longer be seen as an enemy of the private sector.”
Under such circumstances, people will no longer believe that the public sector workers are there to milk them. Hence, those who go looking for passports, judicial services, transactions at the ports, public educational institutions, especially the tertiary – including nursing and teacher training institutions – will no longer be compelled to prepare towards paying bribes because they would know that they would not be frustrated. “Going to the police service and you have to go and see a certain big man, the military a certain big man. All these things we want to put an end to them.”
The CEO emphasises: “In five years, we want the Ghana Public Service to be the best in Africa, if not among the best, so that the turnaround time of doing business in Ghana will be shorter, very efficient.
“If you say you’re going for passport and we say two weeks, it is two weeks; when you get to the port and…we say it is going to be three days, then it is three days; land registration, if we say it’s six months, then you get your land title and it is six months; when we say we are going to put all [the services there for a] one-stop shop for related activities, then there is going to be one-stop shop for related activities.”
Besides, there is going to be a mechanism for rating services. So, immediately after a service has been rendered, the client will receive a text message alerting them to rate the service they just received.
Concluding, Mr Kusi Boafo indicated that, ultimately, this PSRS “will bring about revenue improvement” and aid in fighting corruption because “leakages are going to be blocked. We will be able to fight corruption using this document.”
