New Public Sector Reform Strategy in the Offing

Government remains commitment to reforming the public sector to make it responsive to the needs of business, private sector and the citizenry.

A new Public Sector Reform Strategy is, therefore, being developed based on three principles, referred to as the 3Ps of public sector reforms.

These are a new direction of purpose; building the capacity of people who deliver the public service; and streamlining the processes to ensure responsiveness, efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery at all levels of governance.

Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, made these known in a keynote address at a Stakeholders' Validation Workshop on the National Public Sector Reform Strategy (NPSRS), 2018-2023 in Accra, yesterday.

The occasion brought together participants from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), the business and private sector, academia, civil society and the media to validate the new draft Public Sector Strategy Framework.

The Senior Minister said the validation workshop marked a milestone in changing the face of public sector services in their interface with business and the private sector and the citizenry as a whole.

He said it had become imperative to develop a comprehensive national public sector reform strategy which was responsive to the needs of business, private sector and the citizenry.

The Public Sector Reform Strategy, the Senior Minister said, was also one of the structural reform benchmarks of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Programme (2015-2018), aimed at putting the economy on the path to a sustainable growth.

The aim of such a reform strategy, he added, was to re-orient Ghanaian public sector agencies to deliver cutting-edge services to citizens and the business and private sector to lead the job creation agenda on a sustainable basis, and also provide the necessary support to the executive arm of government.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said the reform vision of government was to create a responsive, efficient and effective public sector which placed the catalytic role of government to support the private sector in job and wealth creation at the center of all its policies.

He bemoaned the fact that previous attempts at public sector reforms yielded only modest results.

This, he attributed to weak institutional and human capacity, inadequate resources, lack of accountability, poor co-ordination, poor work ethics, limited modernization and use of technology, and overlapping functions among public sector institutions.

Mr Osafo-Maafo, therefore, pledged government's commitment to combating unproductive conduct in the public sector such as absenteeism, apathy, ineptitude and perceived corruption which, he said, had led to a loss of trust and confidence in the public sector.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Public Sector Reform Programme, Mr Kusi Boafo, in a welcome address, said moving the country forward required a series of reforms.

Mr Boafo said stakeholders' ideas, contributions and actions were needed to conclude a final public sector reform strategy that would inform government on the way forward on governing the country.

In a Goodwill message, Mr Yero Baideh, Country Director of the African Development Bank (AfDB), said his outfit was pleased to be part of the validation workshop to reform Ghana's public sector.

Mr Baideh said public sector reform was key to inclusive growth and poverty reduction as well as improving citizens' participation in governance in many African countries.

Mr Henry Kerali, Country Director of the World Bank, in his remarks, said the World Bank had been associated with public sector reforms in 184 countries, adding that it was only an efficient public sector that would move Ghana's development agenda forward.

Source: ISD (Abu Mubarik)

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