SSSS politicised, wrongly rolled out - Nduom

The founder of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has criticised past and current governments for failing to implement a comprehensive reform for the public sector.

According to him, certain governments decided to roll out only the salary aspect of a detailed and holistic plan his ministry (under the Kufuor administration) designed to reform the entire public sector.

He said their motive was to score political points, hence their neglect of other aspects of the proposed reforms that would have increased efficiency and output of public sector workers.

Dr Nduom, who spoke with Class FM’s Prince Minkah on Wednesday May 4 on the Executive Breakfast Show, held the opinion that the public sector needed to be revamped and retooled to achieve success similar to other advanced countries towards development.

Dr Nduom, who, at a point, served as Minister of Public Sector Reforms under Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, pointed out that a public sector reform programme was drafted during his time in office, which included performance management, infrastructure improvement, capacity-building, pay reforms, pension reform programmes, and other components, which needed to be implemented as a whole package to achieve success to drive the nation.

He indicated that: “Many people took the pay reform part [currently known as the Single Spine Pay Policy] and went to increase pay for many public sector workers and used that as a political tool that this administration had increased pay, etc. It was not a stand-alone policy. It was supposed to go hand-in-hand with improving work conditions, technology, performance management, etc.”

Citing an example, he explained that the reform document suggested that CCTV cameras be installed at all the ports of entry of the country so that transactions between importers and port workers would not be a private matter, but a public matter, and a supervisor can review the tape and make sure that everything was in order so that the state would not be cheated.

To him, failure of such measures “will lead people to privatise the work individually and there will be problems such as what we are experiencing today at the ports”.

He noted that these systems have been proven to work and were “not a mystery”. “It is done in America, UK, South Africa and many parts of the world. It can be done in Ghana as well, with the right leadership and also right programme,” insisted the businessman.

Dr Nduom is currently in the Upper West Region to inaugurate offices for GN Bank and other business ventures operated by his Groupe Nduom corporate business body.

The businessman, who recently acquired the Illinois-Service Federal Savings Bank (ISF Bank) in the U.S.A., said he chose to invest in the "poorest region" of Ghana to prove the kind of development that can take place when private sector operators decide to invest in deprived areas of the country.

Groupe Nduom currently operates over twenty business lines in several countries across the globe.