Chief Directors sign 2015 Performance Agreement

Nana Akwasi Agyekum Dwamena, Head of the Civil Service said on Tuesday that the 2014 evaluation report on Chief Directors indicated that out of 24 who were evaluated, three were ranked excellent, eight very good, nine good, and four unsatisfactory.

Nana Dwamena said this at a signing ceremony of the 2015 Chief Directors Performance Agreement in Accra.

The ceremony followed the successful conclusion of the 2014 evaluation exercise during which Chief Directors were assessed on the basis of their deliverables in their performance agreements for 2014.

Nana  Dwamena added  that the report would be thoroughly studied and the recommendations implemented.

He said there was increasing public demand for greater levels of quality and quantity in service delivery though the country was currently encountering some challenges as a result of myriad of factors.

The Head of the Civil Service said the reintroduction of the performance agreement system was consistent with President Mahama’s agenda of creating a better productive and proactive public service.

He said a joint meeting of the Public Service Commission and the Civil Service Council would be held in a few weeks so that significant decisions would be taken towards improving and sustaining this initiative and feedback would be sent to all officers concerned.

Nana Dwamena expressed the hope that the evaluation would have positive roll-on effect throughout the civil service, and urged all Chief Directors to take steps to carve out all strategic elements of their performance agreement to their line Directors and Heads of Department so as to facilitate the effective operationalization of the new performance management regime across the Civil Service.

He said the implementation of the new staff performance appraisals system was an important management tool that could be employed to monitor performance, guard against mediocrity and to ensure each and every member of staff put up their best and measured up to expectations in delivering on their corperate mandate of the Ministry and the Civil Service.

Nana Dwamena said development of professional culture was the primary basis for improving the circumstances of organisations, and charged Chief Directors to carefully review the work assigned to staff to ensure that quality was not compromised.     

He said the technocrat committee of cabinet had been established to support the cabinet secretariat to clean up cabinet memos from ministries that did not meet the standards, adding that the process of re-establishing the reform coordinating unit at Office of the Head of Civil Service had already began as part of efforts to re-establish the Civil Service.

He noted that the office was collaborating with colleagues from the London School of Economics to conduct a baseline study on current management practices in the civil service to under gird a new evidence-based reform agenda.

He said areas  proposed for review include provision of performance information at the individual, divisional and organisational levels, better definition of individual’s task, responsibilities and scope for autonomy through either simple routine or changes to organisational structure.

Mr Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff and Guest of Honour said as a middle income country and given the imperatives of globalisation, fiscal pressures, technological advancement, the changing fabric of the Ghanaian society and the rising expectations of the citizenry for better and faster service delivery at the lowest cost the landscape of public sector administration have had to change significantly in keeping with the new trends, saying that the civil service could not afford to be insensitive to these changes and expectations.

He advised Chief Directors to uphold the principles of professionalism, excellence, transparency, accountability, loyalty, neutrality and selflessness which among other things govern their work by so doing the civil service will begin to take its rightful place and earn respect and recognition in the business of nation building.

Mrs Bridget Katsriku, Chairperson of the Public Service Commission urged Chief Directors to think outside the box, but remain within the law for solutions and make impact and leave legacies for people to remember.

Prof Jane Nana Opoku Agyemang, Minister of Education, called for support for Chief Directors and noted that any staff not performing should be retrained and if they were still not performing then they could be shown the gate
Ms Tina Guthrie, Minister-Counsellor and Senior Director for Development Program at the Canadian High Commission said the next three years would not be easy for them as civil service leaders.

She said the government of Ghana took a bold step in adopting an ambitious IMF reform program in order to restore economic stability and growth,  pointing out that  the reform program was only a piece of paper if it was not implemented.

As civil service leaders you have a critical role to play in the success of the program and  your leadership in advancing key reforms and following through on the tough decisions that come with some of these policy measures, is what will ensure Ghana’s success, she added.

In this way, the performance agreements you are signing today are powerful enablers to you as leaders in the Civil Service as it gives you a framework to assess the priorities of the day, to follow through with the tough decisions, to determine the best way to achieve key objectives, and to remain strategic in the dispensation of your civic duty, Ms Guthrie said.

GNA