GHANA
A senior member of Ghana’s main trade union organisation says the best way to boost productivity in the country’s Public Service is a substantial rise in pay.
Policy Director at the Trades Unions Congress, Dr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo (pictured) said it was impossible to expect maximum output from people in whom so little was invested.
He cited meagre salaries and poor working conditions as major reasons PS employees “do not churn out their best, leading to the employment of consultants to aid in policy implementation”.
He said low capacity in the public sector was a result of staff being poorly paid, so that “they are giving us our money’s worth”.
“If we can up the salary levels in the Public Service, then we can attract people of competence,” Dr Nyarko Otoo said.
“The permanent solution is to make conditions attractive in the Public Service so that people of competence will actually feel encouraged to join to deliver the programs we want them to deliver.”
He also expressed concern about the accountability of Government Ministers, saying loyalty to authority should not imply PS staff were there to “cover up the dirt”.
“The Civil Servants are supposed to be loyal to the Ministers, but does that mean they must be loyal to the Minister even if the Minister is doing the wrong thing, if the Minister is not loyal to Ghana?” Dr Nyarko Otoo asked.
“Has the Secretary a responsibility to the people of Ghana to leak when he feels like what the Minister is doing is not in the best interest of Ghana?”
Accra, 19 October 2018
