Accra, Oct. 27, GNA - The Ministry of Public Sector Reforms is to fashion out a policy framework to enable various Ministries, Departments and Agencies to restate their organisational visions toward effective application of 'The New Charter' for the public service. Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, the sector Minister who announced this in Accra on Friday said the 'New Charter', which President Kufuor formally launched last Wednesday would require public officials to work and translate its principles into reality, come December this year. Its goal is to make the country's public service more responsive and accountable.

Mr Owusu-Agyei was addressing Directors of MDAs at the closing ceremony of the first the batch of a three-week training course at the GIMPA code-named 'The Accelerated Training Programme for the Leadership of the Ghana Civil Service'.

The course, which was organised by the Ministry, in collaboration with the Civil Service and GIMPA formed part of Government Scheme of Service Training programme that began in September last year. In all, 599 MDAs comprising Chief Directors, Directors, Human Resource Managers and Management Services Analysts are to be trained in diverse areas to equip them to be efficient and effective in enhancing productivity.

Mr Owusu-Agyei said the policy framework would enable MPSR to support all MDAs and engender commitment to their mission statements, assign employees meaningful work and restructure their process and procedures in the misty of challenges that border on logistics and motivation.

He said civil servants ought to work hard to consolidate and speed the pace of service delivery, noting that collective performance would be measured against standards. "Independent surveys of clients' perception and assessment of the performance of our public institutions will be conducted at least once a year and the results publicised. "A system of reward and sanctions will also be put in place," he said.

Mr Joe Issachar, Head of the Civil Service said it was unfortunate that due to poor performance on the part of civil servants, the sort of partnership that was supposed to exist between them and the government seemed to be lost. 'We are supposed to be partners, but unfortunately government complains that we are a weak link in supporting its efforts. This is an indictment to the Service," he said. Mr Issachar said the Service was supposed to challenge politicians through its sense of professionalism and commitment to duty at all times so if this seemed to be lost then everything must be done to salvage the image.

He said as leaders, they must be visionaries, problem solvers, and develop good inter-personal skills as well as posses the ability to raise productivity for the overall development of the country. Mr Charles Kotey, a Director at the Local Government Service who spoke on behalf of the participants agreed that a lot needed to be done through the adoption of best practices to restore the image of the Service.