New Charter Shows 75% Improvement Rate In Service Delivery

Government's initial monitoring and evaluation of the new Charter by Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDA's), has shown a 75 percent improvement in service delivery.      Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, the Public Sector Reforms Minister, who announced this yesterday said, even though the detail results of the exercise were yet to be made public, the performance of the MDAs was very much encouraging.
     

He said: 'In all the MDAs, the clients found that the services were performed within the timeframes stated in their respective Charters and that the officers were extremely well informed, polite and helpful.' 

The new Charter, launched in October last year by President Kufuor, is aimed at creating a framework for the delivery of quality public services, which puts citizens/customers first and enables them to hold public servants accountable for the service they receive within timeframes mutually agreed upon.
   

Mr Owusu-Agyei made the announcement at the launch of the Charter for 21 public institutions made up of MDAs and Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies in Accra.
   

They were Ministries of Communication and Energy, Ghana Investment Fund for Telecommunications, Law Reform Commission, Directorate of Crop Services, Department of Feeder Roads, Volta, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regional Coordinating Councils, the Forestry Commission and Women in Agriculture Development Directorate.
   

The rest were the Mfantseman, Komenda-Edina-Eguafo, Effutu, Akuapem South, Ga East and Ga West Municipal Assemblies; Dangme West, Gomoa, Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo District Assemblies.    

Mr Owusu-Agyei further said 50 percent of all MDAs visited during the monitoring and evaluation had Client Services Units and that all were found to be invaluable for interfacing with the public.
   

'The existence of the CSUs has drastically reduced the number of complaints,' he said and noted that the exercise, conducted in May this year, was to ensure that compliance of the Charter by institutions andevaluate their capability to achieve and maintain the standards they have set for themselves.           
   

Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, Chief Advisor to the President, who performed the launch on behalf of President Kufuor, said as a base to measuring standards, Charter was important for MDAs/MMDAs 'to generate a competitive spirit to serve the public.'

She said in setting standards, there was the need to ensure that timeframes for delivering same or similar services to clients and customers cut across institutions
with no or minimal variations.     
   

Mrs Chinery-Hesse asked institutions, Districts and MMDAs to identify the most important needs of their clients and customers they serve in order to be better
informed in setting the standards. All the 21 institutions signed the Charters, which was witnessed by members of
the public.