The National Customer Service Advocate and the Executive Director of
the Organisation for Customer Service Excellence-Ghana,Mr. Hector
Wulff,attends a two day workshop organized by the Public Sector Reform
Secretariat at the Presidency, and the Commission On Human Rights and
Administrative Justice(CHRAJ) Sponsored by the UNDP.
The workshop
seeks to review the status of implementation of Client Service Charters
in the public sector as well as validate a draft questioner intended to
elicit information on Client Service Charters from all
Ministries,Departments and Agencies(MDAs) and Metropolitan,Municipal and
District Assemblies through out Ghana.
Mr.Hector Wulff, as a
leading stakeholder and government adviser on Customer Service issues
has been invited to contribute meaningfully to this development together
with other stakeholders as well.
“Ghanaians must not continue to put up with mediocre service delivery from public services.”
The Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Joseph Whittal made the call on
Tuesday in Accra at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop on review
and validation of Service Charters in the Public Services organized by
CHRAJ and the Public Sector Reform Secretariat (PSRS) under the theme,
‘Client Service Charters-A tool for Improved Service Delivery.’
He said service delivery in the country, which is mostly funded by the taxpayer, was low.
“The available information from the Ministry of Finance that a
whopping 70% of revenue accruing to the state annually is used to pay
public officials is sobering, and should more than justify the need to
reconsider the standard and quality of service rendered by public
officials,” he noted.
In line with this, he called for the evaluation and adoption of service charters to serve as guidelines.
“It is the Commission’s intention to give maximum publicity to the
client service charters when they are reviewed and adopted in our quest
to ensure that service users demand better standards from duty bearers,”
the Commissioner said.
“The public service is the implementing organ of government policies
and programmes and by adopting client or service charters would be
fulfilling a key government commitment of allowing transparency and
participation in decisions that affect them,” according to Mr. Whittal.
He stated that improvement in compensation for public officials must
be reciprocated by enhancing productivity and improving the quality and
standards of services public officials deliver to the public “after all
it is their taxes that go to pay these enhanced compensation.”
Meanwhile, Minister of State at the Presidency in Charge of Public
Sector Reforms, Alhassan Azong, in a remark, said the workshop would
serve as a platform for the review of the implementation of existing
Client Service Charters, as well as to validate “a questionnaire, the
outcome of which, altogether will help develop a prototype Customer
Service Charter for use by all MDAs and MMDAs.”
According to him, improving the performance of public officials is critical to the success of the private and public sectors.
“The image of the public service will improve if the public can
expect their requests and queries to be dealt with in a professional and
timely manner,” the minister said.
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Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Public Sector Reforms, Hon Alhassan Azong |
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Hon Alhassan Azong in a group photo with some of the participants |