Minister calls on civil servants to be committed

Mankranso (Ash), May 9, GNA - Mr. Emmanuel Asamoah Owusu-Ansah, Ashanti Regional Minister, has called on civil servants to be committed to their work at all levels to move the nation forward.

He said there was the need for them to put aside all political and ideological persuasions and perform their duties as entrusted to their care wherever they found themselves.

Mr Owusu-Ansah was addressing a worker's durbar at Mankranso in the Ahafo Ano South district when he toured the area to inspect development projects and also interacted with chiefs and the people in the area last Friday.

He said government was doing everything possible to improve the conditions of service of workers with the setting up of the Salary Commission to address the concerns of workers.

He said civil servants used to have a bad name and was happy that gradually through their good work, that tag or perception had waned.

He said what was left now was punctuality which is still a problem and advised that they have a second look at the issue and try to avoid it.

The Regional Minister noted that strikes cannot be ruled out completely but in all cases it should be lawful in the sense that it must go through labour regulations adding, "strikes should be the last resort to ensure industrial peace and development".

Reacting to the concerns of the people for solutions, the Regional Minister said he was not used to making promises at random and before he did that, he knew he had the answer. He however, indicated that this did not mean that requests made to him would not be considered but did not want to make prompt that would fail and that would be a problem for him and the government. He called on the workers to support the chiefs and other stakeholders in the district to educate the people to register and pay their premium to the National Health Insurance Scheme so that they benefit from the scheme.

Nana Serwaa Dwomoh, Queen of Mankranso, appealed to the Minister to help in the provision of an ambulance for Mankranso hospital, the tarring of the road from the town to link the Kumasi-Sunyani road, additional infrastructure facilities for Mankranso Secondary School and extension of electricity to new sites of the town. At Adugyama, the Regional Minister congratulated the newly enstooled chief of the town, Nana Boakye Yiadom Kotoko and urged him to cooperate with the people and other bodies to enhance the proper development of the town.

The chief, in a speech read on his behalf called for additional public toilet facilities extension of electricity to new settlement in the area and construction of school block for an English-Arabic school in the town.

Mr. Kwaku Obeng Boateng, Ahafo-Ano South District Chief Executive (DCE) told the minister about the good work the government was doing to improve the living standards of the people and said they appreciated the efforts.