9th Annual Conference of Chairpersons of Governing Boards /Councils, Chief Directors and Chief Executives Held in Koforidua

By Richard Akuffo K.

The 9th Annual Conference of Chairpersons of Governing Boards and Councils, Chief Directors and Chief Executives of the Ghana Public Service institutions has ended in Koforidua in the Eastern Regional capital.

The three-day conference, organised by the Public Services Commission (PSC), provided a unique platform for senior public officers to meet and exchange ideas on contemporary public service and public administration practices, with the view to reaching consensus on how to improve productivity, enhance performance and maintain high standards of service delivery.

The conference was on the theme: Change Management; Innovation and Creativity for Value Added Service Delivery.

Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Senior Minister, who delivered an address on behalf of the president, bemoaned the situation where more than 80% of the total domestic revenue was spent on the payment of compensation, wages and salaries, and wondered how much was left to carry out other development projects.

Mr Osafo-Maafo urged all appointees of government to help the system function effectively and efficiently, adding that it was not for nothing that those who were employed in the public services were known as public servants as they were essentially required to provide services to clients and citizenry in general.

He mentioned the growing dissatisfaction among citizens about the lacklustre nature of the performance output of the public service organisations and, by extension, the poor performance of succeeding governments.

Mr Osafo-Maafo, therefore, urged participants to gather enough courage to effect the necessary change to rebrand the public service.

Mrs Janet Ampadu Fofie, Chairperson, PSC, indicated that the forum offered the participants the opportunity for effective networking and sharing of critical information as well as the opportunity to showcase the commission's activities and programmes.

Mrs Fofie said the theme touched on a number of areas related to governance, re-orienting the public administration of the PSC and the management and building of capacities in the public service for efficient and effective delivery of public service to the citizens of Ghana.

She said the theme for the conference was a call to duty in the performance of the organisation's functions and adherence to national laws, rules and regulations, particularly those guiding them in the management of public finances and human resource management and to ensure that they achieved value for money in all the procurement practices and processes.

In a statement, Mr Eric Kwakye Dafuor, Eastern Regional Minister, noted that everyone had the capacity to be innovative, adding that innovation was not always a new product or service, but a new way of doing things for improved performance and quality assurance.

Mr Dafuor, therefore, entreated public servants to step out of the old ways of doing things and task themselves with new ways of addressing the challenges of the 21st century public service.

Some of the dignitaries present included Professor Stephen Adei, the former Rector of GIMPA, who chaired the occasion; and Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, Board Chairman of SSNIT.

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