An attempt to rationalize a hugely unpopular decision to bloat the size of government has set the Information Minister on a collision course with the Civil and Local Government Workers Association.
Mustapha Hamid in justifying why president Nana Akufo Addo appointed 110 ministers and deputies said the large size of government is to make up for a docile, largely ineffective Civil Service.
“The Civil Service has failed us,” he said with passion, explaining further that civil servants are not under any pressure to perform.
He told Joy News Wednesday, shortly after a list of 50 deputy ministers and four ministers of state was made public, that whether or not a civil servant performs, he or she gets paid at the end of the month and will not be sacked in the event he or she does not meet the performance target.
The case however is different for the politician, he cited.
According to him, a political appointee has a mandate to deliver or may be sacked by the appointing officer which is the president if he fails to perform. He reckoned that the large sized NPP government appointees are determined to work with passion to deliver on the promise of the Akufo-Addo government.
His comments about the performance of the Civil Servants have not gone down well with members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association. The Deputy General Secretary of CLOGSAG, Benjamin Nyagri told Joy News the comments by the Information Minister have no basis.
He said, perhaps this country would have fared better if the Civil Servants were playing a more prominent role than the politicians.
He cited cases in the military regime where the civil servants run the affairs of the country.
“In the UK the most active of the public sector is the civil service and they are highly paid. In our parts of the world they are not paid well,” he lamented.
“When people talk this way they should be fair,” he added, pointing out that the suggestion of Civil Service incompetence by the Information Minister was unfortunate.
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