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National communications Director of New Patriotic Party (NPP), Hon. Yaw Buaben Asamoa has lashed out at the public service bureaucracy to sit up and change their ways of doing things to ensure the private sector thrives. This comes on the back of citizens asking government to fix the system.

Mr. Asamoa was of the opinion that the public service bureaucracy has an important role to play in ensuring the private sector is successful.

He said " For the private sector to succeed, the public service bureaucracy must up its game. It’s a symbiotic relationship that cannot be overlooked. As a nation, we are brilliant at planning and developing reports. But we fall woefully short at implementation, supervision and enforcement. We underplay monitoring and evaluation because we refuse to confront and enforce the necessary positive and negative incentives.

64 years after independence, 73 years if the period of ‘doing business’ from 1951 is added and millions of dollars in capacity building with interesting sounding acronyms, workshops, seminars, specialist training and post-graduate scholarships are factored, we are still struggling. Indeed, Paragraph 432 of the 2021 budget finds a need to establish implementation units and assure evaluation.

And I quote-“Mr. Speaker, the implementation arrangements for the GhanaCARES programme are in place. Clear budgets have been set and milestones developed. We will establish delivery units in the relevant MDAs and partner with the private sector, academia, and other practitioners to facilitate and monitor implementation. There will also be regular institutional engagement to ensure that synergies are achieved and our transformation agenda remains on track.”
This bureaucracy still runs perennial heavy losses in oversight evidenced by the annual Auditor-Generals reports.

The budget and economic policy of the Government, as is the future of fixing the country, depends on efficient and effective implementation. Digitisation-thanks to the Vice President-will help get us there. But perhaps it’s time all of us confront our public service ethos in fearless favour of meritocracy, rewarding excellence."