By Lawrence Quartey
Ghana's current public sector reform programme has attracted many praises both from development partners and experts in public administration in recent times.
A Comprehensive Work Programme (CWP) developed to implement the reform has therefore been described as one of the best so far on the African Continent. To some, this is evident in the country's efforts at keeping the economy on track through sound macroeconomic policies.
Ghana inherited a post-colonial civil service structure after it attained independence in 1957. It was a type that was dominated by foreigners.
The country at that time lacked the expertise in public administration and bureaucracy. This did not go down well with Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, First President of Ghana, as a result he introduced a new Charter for the Civil Service in 1960 to restructure public administration in the country. From that time several programmes and initiatives were introduced to reform the civil and public services in the country.
In his 92-page paper on the public sector reforms in Ghana, Professor T. B. Wereko, Chairman of the Council of the Institute of Local Government Studies, summed up the history of reforms in Ghana in three broad periods from the first to the third generation of reforms.
The first generation of reforms, which he said dated from 1949 to 1966, marked the beginning of the Africanisation of the civil service. He referred to the Watson and Coussey Commissions reports as some attempts to reforms the service and the New Charter, which brought into being the Civil Service Act. The Watson commission for instance called for political reforms and advocated for a constitution prepared by Ghanaians, whilst the Coussey constitutional committee became the basis for the 1951 elections in the country.
The second generation of reforms that spanned 1967 to 1980 comprised Dr Kwame Nkrumah's Five-Year Development Plan and the General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong's Operation Feed Yourself (OFY) and Operation Feed Your Industries (OFYI) and some reports of Committees towards restructuring of the public sector.
Professor Wereko described the third generation of reforms, which began in 1980 up to date as "Artificial Inducement of Administrative Transformation Against Resistance." The reason he said was because the reforms were 'pushed' by the World Bank and other donors under their so-called 'Conditionalities'. "It was not a self generated reform."
More than 50 years down the line as a nation, the story has not changed much. There is little doubt that the efficiency of the public sector in Ghana has improved. Revenue mobilisation is still a challenge, the state of infrastructure needs improvement, a lot more needs to be done to enhance the quality of the education and health systems and the fact that people see the police and the judiciary more as predators than the bureaucracy to draft coherent legislation. The level of corruption is very widely known today in Ghana and as for the attitude towards the 'so-called' government work, the least talked about it the better.
Nonetheless, the current reform process that began since the New Patriotic Party took over the reins of government seven years ago, has received myriads of praises as indicated in the opening of this article. The new reform is thought of as one that seemed to have all the necessary features that would not only drive home a true reform process but also establish the mechanisms to make reform a sustainable activity in the entire business of public administration in the country.
One major distinguishing feature pointed out is the introduction of Client Service Units (CSUs) in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as Municipal and District Assemblies. Another is the new Charter for public officials. These and other features have been identified as major paradigm shifts in Ghana's new public sector reform. It is believed that these features would inject better responsiveness to the needs of the citizenry.
The CSUs, to be equipped with tools to track complaints of the public, would serve as a database where speedy and accurate information on public services would be provided. The New Charter on the other hand would serve as a gauge against which the public service's performance would be measured. The Charter also constitutes a bond of agreement between public service providers and the public with the former undertaking to make their outputs accessible to clients or public in the most effective and timely manner.
Last but not the least, the Charter enshrines the rules governing the public services and users in conformity with the fundamental, universal principles of public service, equality of treatment, neutrality, legality and continuity.
Passing comments on these in his paper, Prof. Wereko said, even though the current reforms have seen some resistance and problems, the concept of the client units was more likely to address the public needs timely and in a more effective manner. He said it would further entrench the new reform he called the Post-Bureaucratic Paradigm in public service delivery between service providers and the public. "Ghanaians are now witnessing this paradigm shift, which is consistent with global concept of effective public service delivery, good governance and enhanced potential for national development."
He said it would be too optimistic to conclude that after only a few years of the new paradigm, a culture of timely and effective public service delivery had been attained or entrenched in Ghana. As a result he said public perceptions should persist that the quality and mode of public service delivery still needed further improvement. "Expressions of such perceptions should now have the bite and positive effect of pushing service providers to a persistent search for better and continuous improvement in delivery."
Explaining why the reforms in the past did not work, Prof. Wereko identified factors such as individual and institutional resistance to change, financial and logistical constraints, the absence of change management teams to implement reforms and lack of commitment on the part of institutional heads.
"When individuals and institutions perceived reforms (change) as a threat to their entrenched way of doing things then implementation became a problem even from the very beginning. On funds and logistics, he said unless the reform anticipated and made provision for its implementation, it would be difficult to drive it to fruition.
Besides, the CSUs and the New Charter, the creation of an institutional home to drive home the reform programme has also been pointed out as a major feature in Ghana's new reform agenda. This has received wide commendation from donor partners, which to them was crucial to the success of public sector reform.
Ghana has established a Ministry known as the Ministry of Public Sector Reform. Its creation was seen as an acknowledgement that the implementation of fundamental public sector reforms was critical to the achievement of the government's vision.
The Ministry in 2006 developed the Comprehensive Work Programme which was launched by President Kufuor with the broad objectives of: Delivering efficient and cost-effective public services that would improve living conditions of the poor, making public institutions more responsive to the needs of the private sector and providing support to strengthen and implement the reform strategy.
According to Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, the Public Sector Reform Minister, reform in the past failed to yield the desired impact because it was treated and seen as an event instead of a process. Besides, he said there was no institutional home for it and therefore the lack of ownership of reform programmes.
"The new reform has identified most of these challenges as well as the weaknesses in the past and we have shifted from an old impervious bureaucratic model to a new environmentally responsive bureaucratic system," he noted.
The implementation of the reforms programme started in 2006 with focus on quick and specific activities to gain buy-in and support from the key stakeholders whiles establishing basic conditions for reform such s improved human resource management and regulatory framework for subvented agencies.
In 2007, the implementation consolidated the gains made in 2006 and introduced measures that improved responsibility and accountability with the public sector based on removal of excesses for non-performance and clear and appropriate information flows.
This year, 2008, the attention would be to maintain the implementation. It is expected that gains from the approach would move the country into facilitating the development of deeper delegation and decentralisation within an improved framework or accountability.
Major programmes to be spearheaded would include, the new pay reform which would establish a single-spine pay structure in public sector to be implemented in 2009, the organisational restructuring of the civil service, professionalising human resource practice in the public sector, service delivery improvement and business process review and monitoring of the decentralisation programme.
The challenge ahead would be how to make this new reform work against public perception that the quality and mode of delivery of outputs/services sourced from public service organisations are not often very positive and satisfactory. It is important that the commitment shown so far by government and donor partners be sustained.
Source: GNA
Posted: 17/04/08