Think tank IMANI Ghana has named the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the National Labour Commission (NLC), and the Ministry of Power as the five least inspirational institutions for 2016.

IMANI’s 2015 Public Sector Leadership Awards (IPSLA) also named the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), National Communications Authority (NCA), Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI), Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources as the top five most inspirational public institutions in 2015.

IMANI IPSLA is a prestigious annual public service excellence award organised, which seeks to reward the successful and effective delivery of service by public institutions in Ghana to their stakeholders in the year under review, which begins in September of the previous year to September of the year in which the award is granted.

According to the think tank, to crank the engine of growth of the economy – the private sector – Ghana requires an efficient and robust public sector.

“IPSLA aims at being the tool that motivates public servants to promote innovation in service delivery and enhance professionalism in the public service,” the think tank stated.

The IPSLA report surveyed 45 public institutions using a framework built on three pillars: public engagement, independence, transformation. Primary and secondary data sources were used to score indicators which fall under the three categories. On a scale of 0 to 100, the final score of each institution can be explained as the institution’s performance in the delivery of its mandate in the review period (October 2014 to October 2015).

The awards, in its fifth year, has had immense impact in bolstering major reforms in the public sector.

For instance, only 11 per cent of institutions do not have a website as compared to 35 per cent in the 2013 awards following research.

IPSLA has also led the discussion on the need for strong leadership, placing a demand for innovation and policy coherence in the public sector.

The overall 2015 IPSLA scores indicate a general improvement in the performance of most institutions assessed and it is the hope of IMANI that in the coming years, the level of efficiency in the public sector will rise higher.

The majority of the institutions placed in the ‘good performance’ range, while 13 per cent of evaluated institutions placed in the ‘very poor performance’ range.

The 2015 IPSLA is scheduled for Thursday, December 22, 2016.