The public also get a raw deal. These days people are sitting pretty in their offices expecting members of the public who go to do business with their institutions come bowing instead. The posture is getting even worse in the public service. Untoward attitudes of some of the officers at our public institutions leave much to be desired.
When President Barrack Obama of the United States of America visited Ghana in July 2009, one of the thoughts he left with us was the need to build stronger institutions of state. And he was right for admittedly, it is the institutions that will build the rule of law, enforce discipline, create confidence and the space for tolerance and bring about professionalism in our approach to things.
Alongside these institutions of state are also public bodies which are playing supporting and sometimes liaison roles in the administration and governance of the country. I am referring to the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of state. Unfortunately however, the kinds of attitude we seem to be getting from some of the employees of these sensitive institutions are nothing but setbacks to progress.
If attitude, as they say, is everything, then we have every cause to worry about the kind of future administrators that we are raising for our critical public institutions. Why am I saying this?
I happened to work on a simple request the other day which meant that I had to deal with three or four of our public institutions all of which are closely related.
For nearly four weeks, I came into close working contact with one of the four since it was the key player in the particular assignment I was tackling. I had thought my task was simple and straight forward so I started early to finish early. The request was clearly documented in a letter and personally delivered to avoid any delays. The follow up was a nightmare.
For two weeks, the characteristic “go and come tomorrow”, “no action has been taken yet”, “call next week because the person to take the decision is not available” did not worry me much because we had a bit of time to play around with. However, going into the third week, the seriousness of the kind of attitude I had witnessed so far dawned on me. I was saddened rather than upset. What if I was a foreigner? What impression of the country and its institutions would I have taken away with me? The approach revealed the lack of seriousness in our dealings with official issues.
Into the third week of the “go and come” approach, things got worse for me. I was now being asked questions as to when I brought the letter and who received it. There was a day I was directed from the second floor to an office on the first floor and then to the ground floor only to be sent up again just tracing a letter which was yet to be actioned. When I told my experiences to a friend he remarked, “You were lucky you were not asked to start all over again by bringing a new letter.”
Nobody seems to be paying attention to the lack of enthusiasm and the seeds of apathy creeping into the administration of critical areas in our public service. In the last four weeks or so, I have come to the conclusion that people have lost a sense of urgency in the jobs they do as public officers. That their actions and inactions could have serious setbacks to the image of not only their outfits but the nation as well is no worry to them. What picture of the country are foreigners who go into such offices to transact business take of Ghana? There seems to be too much inertia in some areas of our public service and one wonders who is measuring performance.
I know of a company which has, at a great cost and for laudable reasons, imported some critical equipment worth thousands of dollars that they intend to distribute to some key institutions across the country as their support for communities. In order to ensure that every region in the country benefits from the intended donation, the boss of the company himself decided to go and talk to someone higher up.
He has made a personal trip to the relevant state institution just so he could discuss their intentions and get a better national direction. He managed to see a decision maker but unfortunately for him, that is where his enthusiasm got dampened with the kind of reception, responses and general attitude that greeted him. Elsewhere, someone would have grasped the idea with both hands offering all the advice needed. Here, it was like he was a bother. What happened to the talk about encouraging public-private partnerships?
Unfortunately, the kind of culture obtaining in some of our public institutions, and it does cut across from the top to those lower down, calls for a shakeup of attitudes and posture particularly for those whose offices are such that they have to deal with the public all the time.
The old mentality that “this is not my father’s business”, seems to be with us even unto this day. Goodness knows how many countless opportunities Ghana has lost through undesirable attitudes and the way and manner people paid to supervise and defend the interest of the nation are going about their duties.
Persons who have been lucky enough to obtain jobs in public institutions should be taught to appreciate the fact that there are many others out there on the unemployment list who may be better qualified and have the necessary disposition to sit in the seats they are toying with. Being courteous to people seeking assistance and going the extra mile sometimes to explain things is a mark of a dedicated worker.
Elsewhere in some private establishments, attitudes are seen as part of the values and the culture of the organisation. Steps are taken for employees to go through training courses that would help improve their perspective. Should we not constantly instil such values in our public service officials through extensive inductions, formal training courses or as part of on-going organisational awareness and culture?
Sometimes I wish that just as some of the numerous awards schemes instituted to reward and bring about professionalism, a sense of duty, commitment and creativity among other things, to bear, would also be extended to public institutions. Such a recognition scheme should be encouraged to name and shame the worse MDAs or even some of the employees in the sector.
While we congratulate the new Head of the Public Service Council, the passionate appeal would also be that once she settles down into the gigantic task ahead of her, she should quickly dismantle mediocrity and unprofessionalism in the public service by instituting an MDA of the Year Award because one would want to believe that there are some good professional MDAs in the system who need to be recognised.
However, in setting up the Award scheme, the worse MDAs should also be named and shamed for their mediocrity which may have brought the Service and the name of Ghana into disrepute. No way should the system continue to shield non-performance. There are too many young graduates waiting in line for jobs. Undesirable attitudes need to be flushed out.
Author: Vicky Wireko Andoh/vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com
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Feature: Undesirable attitudes tend to stifle progress