Take control of development assistance

Accra, July 12, GNA - Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Public Sector Reform (MPSR), on Thursday urged the Government and Ghanaians to take better control of development assistance especially from the design, costing and implementation stages.

He said there were too many projects spread thinly throughout the country that could neither be sustained nor reduce poverty nor lead to development in a significant way.

Speaking at the final day of the 2006 Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences Lectures, Dr Nduom pressed the need for the Government and public sector structures to develop capacity to efficiently meet the demands of a rigorously changing society.

He was speaking on: 93Evaluating the Effectiveness of National and International Institutions in Poverty Reduction.'

The Minister called for an improvement in the effectiveness of national and international institutions in the country to improve on competences and institutional capacity.

"This is dependent on reforms to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Public Services," he said.

Dr Nduom said when that was done the Sector would be better positioned to serve the Private Sector to perform better than it had done in the past.

He said Ghana had missed opportunities since independence, due to its =93inability to sustain the commitment to good governance and weakness of institutions that would ensure good governance and guarantee civic rights."

He said national and international institutions were not effective as required in poverty reduction, though poverty levels had dropped in parts of the country.

Dr Nduom was of the opinion that, "the Private Sector and international institutions that want to support poverty reduction efforts required an effective Public Sector to play their roles effectively".

On what was being done on the national front, Dr Nduom said the MPSR was created with a mandate to facilitate, coordinate, monitor and evaluate the progress of reforms across the Public Sector.

The Ministry through advocacy and public education provided policy direction, implementation support to, and mobilization of resources for Ministries with the aim of building capacity in the Civil and Public Services to provide timely and productive services to the Executive and improved service delivery to the citizenry.

He said the Ministry had developed a strategy at delivering several objectives for achieving the goals of the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) II.

"These include delivery of efficient and cost effective Public Services, creation of a conducive climate and making public organizations more responsive to Private Sector needs while building capacity and enhancing efficiency in the Government machinery."

He outlined the objectives of the MPSR's comprehensive work programme, which offered an operational roadmap, establishment of appropriate priorities and effectively channelling the use of limited resources and serving as a basis for securing funds for reforms among other things.

Other principal elements in the reform agenda, he said, were refocusing the mandate and structure of the Civil Service, establishing effective human resource management policies and systems, improve service delivery and records management.

Dr Nduom said conditions of service of Public and Civil Service staff was of priority and sought to improve the physical working conditions of Public Service personnel and update the available office equipment to improve productivity and self esteem of workers. Major areas receiving attention are public sector and pension reform, restructuring of central management and strategic management agencies, sub-vented agencies reform, public financial management, decentralization, ICT and evaluation of effectiveness of international institutions.

The Ministry is collaborating with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that facilities are at an optimum level. Dr Nduom admitted that donor support had been significant to Ghana's development efforts since the 1980s and current reforms, which started in the 1990s.

"But their support has not yielded the best results due to among other things institutional and administrative arrangements. The way out is in the recent adoption by development partners of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness that goes beyond a statement of general principles and lays down a practical, action-oriented roadmap to improve the quality of aid and development."