Gov’t To Clamp Down On Lazy Civil Servants

The Government of Ghana is currently looking at curbing indiscipline within the civil service throughout the Country to increase productivity.

One of the systems proposed by the authorities to curtail indiscipline in the civil servants is the introduction of a system where civil servants will have to clock-in for work and clock-out of work.

Information available to The Citizen Newspaper from the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare indicates that the government is now fed up with employees who arrived late for work but closed before the stipulated time.

The clock in clock out system is normally used in factories, where a worker would have to pass a special card through a piece of equipment to record that he or she has arrived for work and also, time of arrival. This process has to be repeated when closing from work. Installation of this equipment will keep civil servants on their toes and the lackadaisical attitudes in them will fade away like a minute gun.

A worker of the ministry who pleaded anonymity disclosed this to The Citizen Newspaper in an interview in Accra last week. He said he read the above statement in a drafted proposal prepared by the ministry.

The statement says, "Discipline is a gigantic matter in government currently which needs to be taken care of before things get out of hand. Employees are not getting to work at 8am, the stipulated time schedule for workers in Ghana but by 3.30pm you see them going home without taking into consideration what their absence will cost the government. The dress codes of some are unacceptable. Hence, the statement is calling for a return to the nitty-gritty of the civil servants code of ethics. It is apparent that the behaviour of some employees is appalling," The statement disclosed.

According to the statement, some civil servants report for work and close before the stipulated time but there was no follow up on what they have accomplished for the day, and this was a sign that there had to be a comprehensive monitoring system in place to record the movement of workers. The statement went further to say that some workers have a habit of being absent without being on leave schedule with no apparent reason but no one really followed up.

The statement said the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare is now determined to bring about loyalty to work after so many years of sloppiness in the civil service.

But The Citizen thinks that the biggest problem with Government is a failure to professionalize the civil service. The simplest and the best ways to do this is to reward performance and punish civil servants who attached lackadaisical attitude to their work by giving them two to three months suspension without salary; then, put in place a system to monitor and evaluate that. With this system in place, workers’ attitude towards work will change and productivity will rise.