'Let's Clean Up Our Image As Public Sector Workers'

By Raissa Sambou And Dorothy Brocke

The Chairperson for the Public Service Commission (PSC), Mrs Janet Ampadu Fofie, has described as unfortunate the perceptions Ghanaians have about public officers.

She said public officers were seen as corrupt, lazy, unethical, unprincipled, inefficient, ineffective and untrustworthy.

"We must all try harder to clean up our image as public service personnel and must remain apolitical at all times since we are charged with serving the government of the day, to serve every member of the public who come to us for one service," she noted.

Mrs Fofie disclosed this at the 2019 United Nations/ African Union Public Service Celebration Day in Accra on Friday.

The event was held on the theme, 'The intersection of youth empowerment and migration: Entrenching a culture of good governance, ICT, and innovation for inclusive service delivery.'

According to Mrs Fofie, there was the need to improve the capacities of the public service to enhance their ability to handle migrants in a compassionate and dignified manner.

She stated that for effective and efficient service delivery to Ghanaians, public officers should strive to build a competent, innovative, professional and merit- based public institutions.

To successfully do this, she charged public officers to embrace the modern technology and other innovative means for better service delivery.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PSC, Mr Thomas Kusi Boafo, on his part stated that it was important for the youth to harness their potentials to help in nation building.

"The youth can be crucial agents in any country's social, political and economic developments especially when empowered to actively participate in national development agenda," he stated.

He expressed worry about the unemployment rate and the way urbanisation had changed trends for youth to adopt unethical behaviour, saying modernisation had increased the growing incidence of youth in violent conflicts and high incidence of drug and substance abuse.

Mr Boafo urged both private and public sectors to also embrace the President's Ghana beyond Aid vision to find pragmatic efforts to better the nation.

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