Weak public services administration is a challenge to Ghana - Minister

Dr Rashid Pelpuo, Minister of State Public Private Partnership, has said weak public services administration is one of the major challenges the country is facing.

He stressed that though there are institutions, they are not strong.

"Our institutions exist in laws but their functioning is a problem," Dr Pelpuo said at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) Public Lecture held in Accra over the weekend.

He has therefore called for an increase in the private sector to help promote development.

"We are in an era where we have to break through and not depend on public sector for employment but the private sector," he said.

Dr Pelpuo also called for the training of the youth with best administrative practices that would go a long way to save the country from the many challenges confronting her.

"We need a new breed of young people who will think differently and generate development."

Speaking on the theme: "Driving Development, the Experience in Ghana from Independence to date," Dr Pelpuo said under the Dr Kwame Nkrumah administration, there were general improvement of public infrastructure but was however faced with military coups.

He described the Jerry John Rawling's regime as "A policy blue print termed vision 2020 with a long term goal of improving the social and economic status of all individuals to eliminate extremes of deprivation by encouraging the creativity, enterprise and productivity of all citizens," he said.

Under the John Agyekum Kufour administration, the Minister of State Public Private Partnership said: The regime focused on the policy superstructure set up by the provisional National Defence Council government.

"The development programme was to ensure a stable macro-economic environment and to launch the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy as a major policy direction," he said.

According to Dr Pelpuo the John Atta Mills and John Mahama Administrations continued to build on the achievement of the earlier regimes.

He said: "It emphasises on the core issues of democracy and good governance, free market, human resource development and a commitment to macro-economic stability."

Dr Abudulai Darimani, the Acting Director of the ILGS, urged the citizenry to collaborate with leaders towards the building of the country.

The lecture, forms part of a series of internal lecture held by the institute monthly, to create platforms on public education, building the confidence of the young and intellectuals as well as to share information.