Public Sector Reforms, a focus on the human

-A local problem solving issue

There has been no other time in the history of the pubic sector globally, than in the beginning of this new millennium when human resource has been so much discussed.

As it were in the discussions for, ?unlocking of the human potential and for the global public sector in 2004/2005, ?building the human capital in the public sector (2003),? new challenges for senior leadership .... (2002) and ?managing diversity in the civil service (2001)? mostly, under the auspices of the United Nations.

The Ghana public sector reform ministry could be likened to a core ?guardian? agency that has the mandate to offer strategic leadership and must focus on results. Taking note of the fact that the infinite resource of the state are its career civil servants and life long employees.

Ghana?s public sector reform process also does face a superfluous challenge with the issue of ?the private sector is the engine of growth.? As such the place and merit of the Ministry of Private Sector and Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI) remain to the test or on in doubt.

As if the Agricultural and Industry Ministries did not effectively deal with private farmers and corporate manufacturers respectively, in the past. Whereby, networking, collaboration and especially partnerships are being exploited efficiently in most jurisdictions.

Numerous issues of the ?human? (human in nature) tend to seek centre stage, be it in leadership or lifelong careers in civil service employment has put an increasing demand on politically impartial, professional and merit-based civil service the world over.

Unfortunately, political undermining by government of the public sector service delivery in Ghana occurred long ago in the second Republic (1969). When a Ghanaian court ruled against the government of the Progress Party (PP) in a monumental case of Edmond Kwaku Sala (Ghana National Trading Company, GNTC).Who gave him a reinstatement on the job because of wrongful dismissal hence, became one of the many who were affected by what was to be known as ?Apollo 568.?

The Prime Minister Dr K. A. Busia overturned the ruling by saying ?no court? to the rule of law. This aggressive approach of the Prime Minister at the time jeopardized any attempt to seek redress for the many, such as high ranking officers of the Police Service, ministries, departments, agencies and others.

These were mostly, top or high ranking public sector managers. The dismissed persons numbered five hundred and sixty eight, in what could be described as sectarian, ethnically motivated and non-professional dismissals by government.

A peculiar scenario was unleashed into the Ghana public sector system, as profound memory begun to be lost in the public sector not by way of ageing public services but through shear cronyism, rather than merit-orientation.

This high departure rate of experienced Ghana public sector workers was what shook the foundation of the Ghana public sector and the delivery of services, in a manner that could be likened to loss of institutional memory.

The soar precedence continued to haunt meaningful public reforms for decades, it stifled prestige and competence in the public sector at the time and continue to be so.

Today, in 2006 even though there are no tough, objective anti-corruption rules, the agencies (SFO, CHRAJ, etc.) that be, whose duty is to curb corruption are continuously compromised on many fronts (for instance staffing,. pay, budgetary allocation, capacity, etc.)

The institutions are in themselves limited by executive decisions of an evasive nature, a non-listening government and an insensitive governance approach to the demands for accountability in high office by the citizens.

All these and others, including the failings of the structural adjustment years tend to ridicule any genuine effort to reform the public sector in Ghana.

When the social capital of trust, engagement and reciprocity is lost from human capital; knowledge, skills, values and attitudes hence, it is development performance that suffers. It makes therefore, little or leaves no ability for poverty reduction.

The lessons of the past attribute of government and links to the current government has made many look at the Public Sector Reform Ministry only as a ?wolf in a sheep?s skin.?

It will take a long time and lot of hard work by the sector minister, to build the necessary goodwill to debunk cynicism, skepticism and suspicion of public sector workers in their demand for commensurate remuneration at all times. These have resulted in the never ending strikes and threats of strike in most frontline service sectors.

This will involve leading by example, where reports of corruption, will not be fiercely met by calls of the Presidency to ?bring proof,? ?its only perception? and ?journalists should report corruption to the Police.? Whereas we all know how various research results have shown time and again how the police have recorded high on corruption.

It is proper for democracy and good governance in Ghana to recognise what many countries like South Africa, India, Malaysia, Singapore, etc., have done in the circumstances where the ?burden of proof? rested on the accused.

It is time to forearm ourselves that many countries of the OECD did fail in their attempt to apply a performance pay methodology under the New Public Management (NPM) because of the complexities involved in administering such a system.

The cultural roots of this Anglo-Saxon doctrine prompted an experiment even in Japan, but was short-lived, long abandoned, by the Japanese reverting to the age-old ?seniority system? until this day.

This explains some of the problems faced in the Ghana health sector pay reforms with the ?Additional Duty Hours Allowance (ADHA).? In other words ?institutional monocropping? should carefully be avoided.

Clearly, it will be an unwarranted path for Ghana to take since we seem to have certain resemblances to developing Asian countries, because the many problems of the public sector in developing countries are different from those the New Public Management (NPM) sought to solve.

I will therefore, recommend a total openness of the public sector and public sector personnel (both frontline staff, leadership and top management) to public scrutiny, and the need to vigorously pursue it in the current reform process.

There is a high demand to research into new areas in Ghana in order to strengthen workforce planning and analysis, including collecting workforce statistics. The high costs involved in sustaining public service pension funds will occur sooner than later. Ghana has also not managed diversity in the public sector effectively

The public sector could hardly be reformed without finding answers to ?brain drain,? since Ghana has never developed its critical mass of talent for the various fields. It is only when there is this critical mass that we can ignore the adverse effects of brain drain on the delivery of services. With our small pool of talent for the sectors (health, education, etc.), there is increased competition for staff between private, public sectors in Ghana and the globalised world.