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Auditor-General calls for “positive change” in public sector

Due to technical challenges , the story was not published as indicated on the front page .We are publishing it today for the sake of our cherished readers.

THE Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo, has called for a positive change in the public sector to improve efficiency in service delivery and enable the country realise its full socio-economic potential.

He said public sector workers should not forget that they were in office to serve the citizenry and not their personal interest or that of the government of the day.

“We should work to serve the interest of Ghanaians. The

‘public servant’ has lost its meaning. This is where we must change, it is very painful to see the potential our country has and where we are,” he said.

Mr Domelevo expressed these sentiments at the eighth Inspirational Public Sector Leadership Awards (IPSLA) 2019 organised by think tank, IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, in Accra yesterday.

This year, the annual awards that recognise excellence in public sector delivery, measured current innovative initiatives introduced to improve the efficiency in public service delivery.

Out of 40 institutions assessed, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) was adjudged most innovative public sector institution for its mobile renewal and non-biometric member authentication.

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) placed second with the Smart Vehicle Registration Card and Driver’s License while the National Service Secretariat’s (NSS) online booking of appointment for national service registration earned it the third position.

The Ministry of Energy grabbed the fourth for the maiden Oil and Gas Licensing Round while the first position went to the Ministry of Business Development for its presidential pitch.

The award was on the theme, ‘Innovation in public sector service delivery’.

According to Mr Domelevo, despite the worrying state of public sector, some Ghanaians justified it in what he described as negative benchmarking in which the country was compared with worse situations in other countries.

In his sector, he said it should be possible for the Auditor General’s reports to be ready a few months after the end of a financial year but requests for data from the various institutions took months.

He envisaged a time that all public sector institutions would be ranked and their leadership praised or sacked based on performance as this would whip them in line.

International Development Expert Marricke Kofi Gane speaking on the theme, said effectiveness in public sector delivery could save the country a lot of money for development projects.

According to the aspiring independent presidential candidate, efficiency could be achieved through the cutting of cost to remove bureaucracies to increased turnaround time, remove duplication of roles, and monetise indiscipline.

For him, the country should get more out of every cedi spent, saying, “Think about how every decision, allowance, contract, and recruitment process will give more to the Ghanaian for every cedi spent.”

Philip Stalder, Ambassador of Switzerland to Ghana lauded Ghana for introducing innovation, including drone medical deliveries and urged the public sector to introduce more to better service delivery.

Franklin Cudjoe, Founding President, IMANI said the awards was to drive efficiency in the public sector and not to ridicule them and therefore called for stronger collaboration from the various institutions. 

BY JONATHAN DONKOR

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