The Senior Presidential Advisor, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has underscored the need for the country to continue and sustain public sector reform initiatives and programmes without compromising the quality-of-service delivery.
He explained that, the public administration systems must utilise new technology in coming out with innovation and efficiency.
“We need to redefine the role of the public sector to enable it to serve as the needed catalyst for a competitive private sector and an improved service delivery to the citizens,” he said.
He argued that, the effectiveness and efficiency of a country’s public sector was a key determinant of growth and development, explaining, “Public sector reforms are still not an option for the public sector of Ghana, but a necessity”.
Mr Osafo-Maafo made the call at the on-going National Stakeholders Dialogue on Public Sector Reforms (Phase 1) being organised by the Public Sector Reform Secretariat in collaboration with the World Bank in Cape Coast.
Under the theme for the series of engagements is “Taking stock and identifying emerging issues to shape Ghana’s new Public Sector Reform Strategy, 2025-2030” it seeks to engage cross-sectoral stakeholders in taking stock of the implementation of the National Public Sector Reform Strategy (NPSRS) and the key reforms undertaken in the public sector between 2018 and 2023.
“Public sector reforms are still not an option for the public sector of Ghana, but a necessity. It will help government respond to the fast-growing environment and society needs and position it competitively on the global stage” he indicated.
He also stated that, the new reforms to be formulated make provision towards addressing the problem of unemployment situation in the country.
The Director, General Administration, Public Sector Reform Secretariat, Mrs Thelma Ohene-Asiamah, stated that, lessons from the implementation of past reforms indicated that reform initiatives were unable to fully achieve their intended objectives due to several reasons.
“For instance, most of these reforms were supply driven. The past reforms were also not informed by any comprehensive national public sector reform strategy,” she said.
She further said, lack of continuity in the implementation of public sector reforms was one of the most important drawbacks in previous reforms, saying, “Changes in government and leadership in reform entities led to incompletion and re-prioritisation of reforms”.
Mrs Ohene-Asiamah expressed optimism that the new Public Sector Reform Strategy would provide the nation with a blueprint and framework to consolidate reform interventions implemented between 2018 and 2023 and to cover new reform initiatives.
“The review is expected to provide valuable learnings on what has been achieved, what areas of the strategy need more attention, identify the gaps in the strategy, and in forward-looking, develop and recommend the much-needed reform interventions for the next five years,” she said.
FROM DAVID O. YARBOI-TETTEH, CAPE COAST
