Sometimes, it becomes highly disinteresting to
continue to diagnose and proffer transformative remedies for the ailing
institutions in a country that promises a better Ghana. This is because almost
all too well, it is not that leaders and ordinary Ghanaians of the country do
not know how to deal with the problems of the entities therein, rather they are
refusing to solve them. Why those
concerned are intentionally refusing to squarely deal with the problems that
hinder the forward-march of the country is just bewildering. But then, high
degree of greed which manifests itself in multifarious ways and inspired by
polygons of forces may well be the immediate suspects to apprehend. These polygons
of forces are however overwhelmingly powerful and have more often succeeded in
hijacking not only the common interest of innocent Ghanaians but also that of
the mandate of arresting entities.
Nonetheless,
hope to change the dangerous circumstances into a better Ghana is not lost,
should not be lost and cannot be lost. All the people of Ghana, both victims
and culprits alike, are variously responsible and just must not afford to lose
any hope. I am particularly comforted by the confidence that is attracted to
the deeply entrenched hope by most Ghanaians, especially that of the nature which
was defined by a Harvard professor as ‘angry at the way things are and courage
to see to it that things do not remain as they are’.
Indeed,
many Ghanaians are not in any way happy with the way things are but it appears
that the necessary courage to change those annoying things is what is somehow
lost. This needed transformative courage must be found and utilised by and in
all entities at all cost. President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana has come with
some renewed vigour to find the relevant nerves and bravery to clear the mess that engulf many
entities of the country which can best be described as weak, static, bleeding
and or dysfunctional. The President of the republic as the Chief Executive
Officer and Commander-in-Chief, on the authority of article 57(1,2) of the 1992
constitution, does have all the needed authority and power to lead a drastic
positive transformative drive of all the institutions and people in Ghana.
In
fact, it is not for nothing that all entities and persons in Ghana look up to,
and answer or report to the President of the republic in a variety of ways.
Thus, the President oversees every other habitation right from the Office of President
to Ministries, Assemblies, Departments, Agencies, Institutions to Companies,
and other establishments such as Groups and Associations as well as Individual
Households and Persons therein. All of them do depend on the President to
effectively charter a better course for all. But in a heavily corrupted country
where disorderliness is portrayed as order, the challenge to penetrate through
the thick maze of entangling mess is ever more herculean albeit verily surmountable if there is uncensored and confrontational
determination and will-power closely guarded by a deep sense of urgency.
This
sense of urgency must be profoundly anchored in rebranding various entities
responsible for the total functionality of meeting the social needs of everyone.
In this light, the following three key rebranding exercises must be vigorously
pursued by the President.
Firstly,
there has to be a crosscutting drive to right-sizing all personnel and tasks in
all entities in the public sector. That is, efforts must be made to ensure that
all personnel in such entities are relevant to their task portfolios and that
such responsibilities thereof are appropriate to the achievement of measurable
social needs. With immediate effect, serious pruning must thus be done to
ensure that sanity is prevailed over ghost names, irrelevant personnel and
duplication of tasks.
Secondly,
there must be a redefinition of standard operation procedures in all public
related entities in the country such that performance is measurable and
evaluative. This is in respect of time
allowed to execute a given task, how to approach and execute the task, what
output is allowed, how to present the output, what effects and impacts are
allowed, corrective or mitigating measures and punitive mechanisms. For
example, failure of a chief director or manager to execute a simple task of timely
signing a cheque for purchase of fuel to power a generator-set that eventually
leads to loss of revenue or lives or resources must not be spared in any way. Conflict of interest in the public sector must
be taken seriously and arrested. For example, there is no reason why a deputy
minister, chief director, minister or their subordinates will earn a full-time
degree in law or administration while at post. At the time they are pursuing
their courses, they definitely are not appropriately performing their roles at
their work places, yet they are fully paid.
Thirdly,
strong and effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism must be put in place
in all entities across board. This will help to uncover all the deep-seated
corruption and inefficiencies in public entities. It should be possible to make
sure that payment of all workers in the public sector is contingent on clean reports
from expert monitoring and evaluation at the end of every month. There should
not be unnecessary bureaucracies. Modern technology must be applied. Monitoring and evaluation officers must
promptly report directly to relevant heads who must relay usable data of
personnel to the President, Chief of staff, attorney general, national
security, auditor general and the accountant general for necessary action.
This
is necessary to instil discipline and integrity in all establishments in the
public sector. In short, workers must be made to be effectively working and
avoid corrupt practices. The President must be the senior-most monitoring and
evaluation officer of the country and must take a no nonsense approach to
disciplining his ministers and relevant officials that have violated the code
of conduct and operating standards or the constitution. The ministers must not also
tolerate any mediocrity, incompetence, corruption, laziness and indiscipline of
whatever nature from Chief Directors, Directors and other senior officers of
all agencies, departments, institutions, companies and groups or associations. Chief
Directors, Directors, executive officers, departmental or agency heads and
other senior officers must also be seen to be ensuring strict compliance by all
those workers under them.
But
you see, quality leadership must be by good example. For the President and his
senior staff to be able to effectively enforce the labour laws and regulations
as well as other operating standards, they must come with clean hands and be
able to demonstrate that they themselves are not flouting such normative or
legal standards and principles. For instance, at the very minimum level, all
workers must be provided with the necessary operating tools and resources in
order to attain optimal output. For
instance, the finance ministry must be made to wake up to ensure that entities
receive their financial allocations timely to enable them perform. If you
pretend to resource workers, they may well pretend to work!
Indeed,
if a disciplined worker promptly and regularly goes to work but there is no
papers to write or type on or no electrical power to operate computers or other
office equipment, failure to perform can definitely not be the responsibility
of such a worker who did not have means to get such resources other than from
the effort of the supervisor or director or leader. Also, junior officers that endeavour
to generate reports which end up not to be put to any use would be
lackadaisical in performing their duties because they do know that their
efforts are in vain. Moreover, junior officers who regularly witness corrupt
practices perpetually committed by senior officers may well also be attracted
to corruption or are emboldened to do so. In all the scenarios, the leader may not
have the moral high grounds to discipline a subordinate when the subordinate is
found doing something which has been inspired by the omission or commission by
the leader. The leader must be disciplined in order to discipline others.
The
foregoing three key rebranding strands need to be tackled with a deeper sense
of urgency. This is primarily because without it, the venom of debilitating factors
such as bureaucratic nightmares, pretence, indiscipline, conflict of interest, poor
attitude, deep-seated corruption, nepotism, redundancies, incompetence and poor
delivery will continue to strangulate the real growth and development of the
economy towards achieving the better Ghana for all. Without replacing the
existing brand which encapsulates unattractive features with that which is indicative
of quality and good prospects, it may well imply that leadership is profiting
from the mess the status quo provides or is not brave or competent enough to
change the attitude of a mal-functional society in order to carry them along to
a perfect destination.
What
Ghana needs now is decisive, competent, courageous, transformative and
exemplary leadership. President Mahama does have these leadership qualities and
more. So has Vice President Emissah-Arthur. They must put them into action immediately
or else their better Ghana advancement agenda will soon be stifled and crumbled
by the vampires, ‘evil-dwarfs’ and buccaneers who ditheringly and insidiously
loiter around to launch attack at the least opportunity. Alas, the nation-wreckers somehow conquered the
iconic polymath of many generations, Professor John Evans Atta Mills. Once
bitten, twice shy and a stitch in time saves nine.
