A two-day workshop to review the status of the implementation of client services charters in the Public Service opened in Accra on Tuesday.

A service charter is a public document that sets out basic information on the services provided, the standards of services that a customer can expect from an organisation and how to make complaints or suggestions for improvement.

Mr Alhassan Azong, Minister of State at the Presidency in charge of Public Sector Reforms, said in as much as there is the need for such client’s charters in all public service institutions, there is equally the need to pay particular attention to the needs and services rendered to citizens, especially those in private sector. “This will ensure that people really get the kind of services they need- they would know exactly how much they should pay for a particular service and how long it will take for them to be served with a service,” he said.

“Because of inefficient services in the Public Service, clients who know people at high places often put pressure on them to intervene in order to get a particular service, which should not be so. The question is what about those who do not know such people in high places,” he asked during the opening of the workshop being organised by the Public Sector Reform Secretariat and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

The workshop being supported by the UNDP is on the theme: “Client/Service Charters –a tool for improved service delivery” and is being attended by participants in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) and civil society organisations including Ghana Integrity Initiative, Organisation for Customer Service Excellence and Consumer Protection Agency.

Participants would also validate a questionnaire to be administered to all state institutions, and use the outcome to develop a prototype customer service Charter for use by the MDAs and MMDAs.

Institutions like Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, Registrar General’s Department, Attorney General’s Department, Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Standards Authority, Passport Office are some of the front line public service institutions who will be working with a standardised clients Charter that would emanate from the workshop.

Mr Azong said the public sector provides key services to the private sector but a key challenge for the sector in the past had been the limited customer/client care and orientation of the service providers.

This, he said, had fuelled the perception of red-tapeism or bureaucracy, bribery and corruption as well as a lack of commitment by the public service to effectively deliver quality services. Therefore improving of the public sector is critical to the success of the private and public sectors.

Mr Azong said the image of the public service would also improve if the public could expect their request and queries to be dealt with in a professional and timely manner and if avenue is created to address complaints.

He explained that the workshop, which would be replicated in Kumasi, Tamale, Koforidua, and Takoradi forms part of a comprehensive programme to reinvigorate the use of service charters and to identify the challenges and shortfalls that come out during the implementation of the previous programme to institutionalise client service charters in the public services.

Mr Joseph Whittal, Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ explained that public services are set up to basically provide a wide range of services to members of the public, and that depending on the political and economic system in a place, public services are paid for or either subsidised or rendered free of charge.

He noted that public services are essentially funded through taxes paid by individuals and corporate bodies as well as other forms of funding generated by the State. “That being the case it is the legitimate expectations of citizens or service users and tax payers generally, that public services are provided efficiently, effectively and always with a view of improving overall quality of service delivery from time to time.”

Mr Whittal said the Accra Declaration that emanated from the 4th Africa Public Service Day celebration in 2013 made observations such as: “The public service in Africa is characterised by weak institutions of accountability leading to administrative weakness, lack of transparency and accountability, bureaucratic corruption and low level of professionalism.”

The Accra Declaration also observed that there was low level of citizens’ awareness about policies and programmes in the public service while citizens are also faced with the challenges in accession information from public service institutions as a result of the weakness in paper-based records managements systems and myths associated with the oaths of secrecy and confidentiality.

Mr Whittal therefore said CHRAJ as the Constitutional watchdog body over public administration has the power to review the administrative actions and decisions of all public institutions and officials to ensure that no one is treated unfairly in the delivery of services, while officials do not abuse people rights in the course of rendering services.

He said CHRAJ would also give maximum publicity to the clients’ service charters when they are reviewed and adopted to ensure that services users demand better standards from duty bearers.