Local Governance Head of Service charges staff to be professional

The Head of Service of the Local Government Service Ing. Dr. Nana Ato Arthur has charged public and Civil Servants to be professional in their duties.

He said the role of public and civil servants is so sensitive that if they get involved in politics, it will derail the development processes in the decentralization system.

Ing. Dr. Arthur made this known when he paid a working visit to the Akrofuom District Assembly in the Ashanti Region.

He said the service has ethics that personnel’s need to abide. He added that one of this ethics is not to be partisan. He therefore charged the staff not to involve themselves in any form of partisan politics.

He agreed that everyone has his/her preferred political party but they should not extent it to the office environment. He recounted how the service in recent times had to dismiss a staff who openly involved himself in politics despite calls him to back out.

Ing. Arthur also appealed to Co-ordinating Directors and Chief Executive of the Metropolitan/Municipal and District Assemblies to frequently organise capacity building programs for their staff in order to improve their performance. He added that three are many mushroom training consultancy firms in the country so management should be circumspect in the selection of the firms to train their staffs.

Ing. Dr. Arthur also commended the staff of Akrofuom District Assembly. He noted that after the creation of the district last year and the postings were done, most of the staff gave excuses to change the posting. He was impressed to see young and energetic staff and promised to ensure that the staff of the Assembly benefit from any incentives that are due staff who are working in a “deprived” districts.

For his part, the District Chief Executive, Hon. Maurice Jonas Woode welcomed and thanked the Head of Service of the Local Government Staff and his team for the visit.

He said Nananom and the people of Akrofuom were thankful to the President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo for the creation of the district. He said the creation of the Assembly will really deepen the decentralisation system in the country.

He added that despite the few resources of the Assembly, it has been able to start the construction of Forty (40) lockable stores at Akrofuom, distributed over Hundred (100) bulbs to communities in the district, converting sheds to office accommodation and constructing Thousand (1000) dual desks to be provided to basic schools in the destrict.

The District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Stephen Asante also thanked the Head of service for the visit and assured him of the preparedness of the staff of the district to work in accordance with the ethics of the service.

The Head of Service of the Local Government Service was accompanied by the Acting Chief Director of the Service, Mr Kojo Oppong Mensah.