CHRAJ condemns poor service delivery

The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has urged Ghanaians to rise up and speak against mediocre service delivery by public officials and institutions across the country.

“Ghanaians must not continue to put up with mediocre service delivery from public services.”

The Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Joseph Whittal, made the call on Tuesday in Accra at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop on review and validation of Service Charters in the Public Services organized by CHRAJ and the Public Sector Reform Secretariat (PSRS) under the theme, ‘Client/Service Charters-A tool for Improved Service Delivery.’

He said service delivery in the country, which is mostly funded by the taxpayer, was low.

“The available information from the Ministry of Finance that a whopping 70% of revenue accruing to the state annually is used to pay public officials is sobering, and should more than justify the need to reconsider the standard and quality of service rendered by public officials,” he noted.

In line with this, he called for the evaluation and adoption of service charters to serve as guidelines.

“It is the Commission’s intention to give maximum publicity to the client service charters when they are reviewed and adopted in our quest to ensure that service users demand better standards from duty bearers,” the Commissioner said.

“The public service is the implementing organ of government policies and programmes and by adopting client or service charters would be fulfilling a key government commitment of allowing transparency and participation in decisions that affect them,” according to Mr. Whittal.

He stated that improvement in compensation for public officials must be reciprocated by enhancing productivity and improving the quality and standards of services public officials deliver to the public “after all it is their taxes that go to pay these enhanced compensation.”

Meanwhile, Minister of State at the Presidency in Charge of Public Sector Reforms, Alhassan Azong, in a remark, said the workshop would serve as a platform for the review of the implementation of existing Client Service Charters, as well as to validate “a questionnaire, the outcome of which, altogether will help develop a prototype Customer Service Charter for use by all MDAs and MMDAs.”

According to him, improving the performance of public officials is critical to the success of the private and public sectors.

“The image of the public service will improve if the public can expect their requests and queries to be dealt with in a professional and timely manner,” the minister said.