Ho, June 14, GNA - A number of mechanisms instituted under the Public Sector Reform Programme to promote efficient, timely and transparent service delivery have begun to yield positive results. Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Public Sector Reform, stated this at a well-attended durbar of public sector workers in Ho on Thursday. He said client service centres at the Passport Office, Lands Commission and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) in Accra have tremendously transformed service delivery in those places. Dr Nduom said in the case of the DVLA revenue has increased by 20 percent as a result.
The Minister said a test case had shown that unknown to the government some foreign institutions in the country were monitoring the situation and had come out with high commendations.
He explained that the Client Service Centres, which were one-stop frontline desks, provided information to the public on the nature of service available and how much it would cost.
Dr Nduom said plans were underway to place electronic monitors at revenue offices, such as the ports, to ensure transparency and weed out underhand dealings with the public.
He said the Public Sector Reforms aimed at helping the sector to regain importance, credibility and relevance, as it existed in the past. Dr Nduom said government business was serious business if not more serious than those of the banks and similar institutions perceived as more important.
He explained that all other institutions derived depended on the public sector services to operate saying that public-private partnership could not exist if the public sector remained weak as partnerships were built on equality.
Mr Smart Chigabatia, Executive Secretary of the Civil Servants Association of Ghana (CSAG), said there was serious business going on with the current Public Sector Reforms initiative as indicated in a number of qualitative changes to salary levels in the Civil Service. He said the Fair Wages Commission, to be established under the reform could be "a bulwark against adhoc and piecemeal approach to salary adjustments".
Mr Chigabatia said the selective favours that characterized salary determinations in the past made workers secretive about their earnings and pleaded for the pooling of ideas to the mutual benefit of all public sector workers.
He said the time for using strikes indiscriminately to achieve higher salaries were over, advising workers to follow procedures prescribed in the Labour Act. 14 June 07
