500 employees inducted into civil service

The Head of Civil Service, Nana Kwasi Agyekum-Dwamena, has cautioned staff of the service against demanding financial favours from clients.

He also asked them to desist from other forms of corrupt practices and acts that had the tendency of bringing the service into disrepute.

“Eschew the tradition of asking people to put “weight” on the paper or otherwise it will disappear. I don’t want you to go in there and facilitate the dismissal of papers-documents you are supposed to work on and push through the system,” Nana Agyekum-Dwamena advised.

He stressed that as part of measures to sanitise the service, there was the need for staff to live above reproach by engaging in best practices to accelerate the development of the country.

Nana Agyekum-Dwamena was speaking at an induction ceremony for 500 new employees into the service in Accra yesterday. The ceremony climaxed a two-day orientation for the new employees who are to be posted to various government agencies nationwide.

Significance of reforms

Nana Agyekum-Dwamena said the reforms were also expected to help rejuvenate the civil and public services to enable the staff to deliver on their respective mandates effectively.

He said a successful implementation of the reforms would help change the narrative around the services whose staff were often perceived to be corrupt, non-performing and lazy, among other negative tags.

He emphasised that the service had the required professionals who could deliver and, therefore, urged the staff to discharge their duties with honour, dignity and integrity.

Responsibility

Nana Agyekum-Dwamena reminded the staff of the service of their fundamental responsibility to serve every government, regardless of their political affiliation with loyalty, truthfulness, genuineness, diligence and excellence.

“Our job is founded on a simple principle to serve the government of the day and the people of Ghana,” he emphasised.

Nana Agyekum-Dwamena described the service as a unique and critical organisation which had survived all governments and initiated and implemented many policies in the country.

He further observed that the service had played effective roles in the prevailing peace and unity in the country, particularly during transition periods.

“More often than not, it is because people do not understand our core values, particularly those relating to anonymity and diligence in providing services to the government and the people, that they claim civil service staff hardly make decisions without consulting the government or the politicians,” he said.

Partnership

Nana Agyekum-Dwamena underlined that Ghana was now under a Constitutional rule and it was required that every four years, presidential elections were held to change or maintain governments.

“It is, therefore, our responsibility as civil servants to interrogate the manifesto of the government of the day and collaborate to develop requisite national policies and programmes for development,” he urged.

He was, however, quick to add that the service was not expected to be mechanical or robotic in discharging its duties, saying it was okay for the staff of the service to question issues but cautioned that the manner in which the questioning was done was what mattered.

He explained that that had to be done in a continuous process so it was wrong for people to accuse civil servants of being robots in the hands of politicians.

He said people who levelled such accusations against the workers were either being mischievous or exhibiting their ignorance.

Writer’s email Doreen.andoh@graphic.com.gh