‘Civil servants willing to do politics must bow out’

Civil servants who wish to do politics should make their positions clear and bow out to enter politics. "Let those who want to do politics go and do so," the incoming Dean of the University of Ghana Business School, Professor Justice Bawole, has stated.

He was speaking on the theme: "Enhancing political neutrality in the Civil and Local Government services — The role of the politician", at the second edition of the Nathan Anang Quao Annual Awards.

The call by Prof. Bawole comes at a time some civil and public servants have resigned to contest parliamentary seats in various constituencies on the tickets of some political parties.

Meanwhile, there is increasing worry over politicisation in the public and the civil services which does not ensure fairness and professionalism at the workplace.

Nathan Quao Award

In all, 12 serving and retired civil servants were rewarded in the second edition of the awards, with the Leadership Award going to a former director of the Ministry of Local Government in the 1980s, Mr S.N.M. Zanu.

The awards were instituted to honour the values and professionalism of the late Mr Quao, who was able to serve diligently across various governments without running into problems in the line of work.

The awards target the civil and local government service workers who are members of the Civil and Local Government Services Workers Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) and who have excelled in their duties in the year under review.

It is open to all serving and retired CLOGSAG members known for their commitment and passion for work and ability to inspire others, among other criteria.

High sense of professionalism

Prof. Bawole urged civil servants to exhibit a high sense of professionalism and ensure that they did not fall to the whims and caprices of politicians.
He advised them that even though they had their political preferences, they should not have an overt political alignment.

"Don't favour any segment of society, 5,000 others. It also aims at increasing capitation grant absorption of registration fees of over 600,000 pupils of public junior high schools who sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination and paying all arrears owed by the Scholarship Secretariat to schools in the Northern Ghana Feeding Grant and students on foreign scholarship.

Employment records of NPP

On employment, Mr Boakye said the government, through the Youth Employment Agency, had engaged 101,000 youth in various employment modules, with an additional 125,000 set to be engaged this year.

Others, he said, included 10,000 youth in the afforestation programme, employment of 53,000 nursing trainees, 3,000 Arabic teachers, 54,000 nurses, 45,000 teachers and 882 agricultural extension officers, among others.

“There is more reason to suggest that more jobs have been created than what official data has captured, and for us in the NPP, it's important to remind the Ghanaian youth that under NDC's Mr Mahama, public sector employment was put on hold and erratic power supply alone collapsed more than one million jobs.

With all these records and performance of the NPP and President Akufo-Addo government, we sincerely believe that the comeback of former President Mahama will be a bad omen for the youth of this country," Mr Boakye said.

He encouraged the youth of the country to throw their weight behind the NPP since it was the only party with youth-friendly policies.