Sharpen ICT skills – Chief Directors told

Mr Roger K. Angsomwine, Cabinet Secretary, has urged Chief Directors and Directors in the Civil Service to sharpen their information and communication technology (ICT) skills and expertise to enable them deliver better services.

He said the world was becoming a global village through ICT, “but we cannot talk about modernization in Ghana unless the Civil Service is modernized”.

He said possessing the right mix of skills and expertise, blended with improved ICT to add value to government transaction was therefore critical, adding that training and retraining of personnel should be an integral part of the Civil Service.

Mr Angsomwine made the appeal on Monday in Accra at the start of a five-day induction course for Chief Directors under the auspices of the Danish Government.

He urged the Chief Directors to sharpen their ICT skills as part of writing Cabinet Memoranda to support Cabinet to roll out an e-Cabinet System before the end of 2014.

He said they should not monopolize training and Human Resource Development opportunities only to themselves.

“If you have a highly trained Chief Director leading a group of untrained staff, the net effect is an untrained Ministry.

“So, share training and exposure opportunities with your staff through mentorship; for the mark of a good leader is his/her ability to share and nurture his/her staff,” he said.

He said competitiveness was the order of the day in all sections of life and the Civil Service could not be immune to it.

“Promotion should therefore, not be automatic or based solely on length of service but must be related to performance,” Mr Angsomwine said.

“I stand for correction, but length of service in my view should not be synonymous with efficiency or performance.”

He said more often than not the accusation often made against the Civil Service, was the management of time, the maintenance of property and equipment, and the cleanliness and orderliness of their work.

“You cannot but agree with me that the incorporation of these observations in your work culture and ethics would provide a measure for the productivity in the Civil Service.

“When this is done, it cannot therefore be that, Civil Servants or the Public Service for that matter continue to agitate for more pay without any improvement in their performance,” he said.

Mrs Margit Thomsen, Danish Ambassador in Ghana, gave the assurance that her country would continue to support the strengthening of the Civil Service, as part of efforts to deepen good governance in the country.