Wholesale privatisation not answer to problems of public sector

The wholesale privatisation or commercialisation of public organisations is not the key to resolution of public sector problems, Prof Stephen Adei, Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), said.

He said the woes of the organisations are not an issue of whether they are public or private but rather weak and poor management. Prof. Adei was opening the sixth quadrennial delegates conference of the Public Service Workers Union (PSWU) on Wednesday.

The two-day conference being attended by 133 delegates, is under the theme, "Public Service: vital for National Development." Prof. Adei said until the problem of poor leadership and management of public sector institutions is properly addressed, there is no way they could be made to enhance productivity. In an address read for him Mr Yaw Barimah, the Minister of Manpower Development and Employment, said, "labour activism can and should go with a healthy sense of responsibility, rules and respect for each other."

He said failure to do this, the country could risk scaring investors away and therefore, negating the efforts of attracting investors into the country.Mr Barimah said he was not happy that workers tend to wrongly assume that a successful labour organisation is one that could threaten employers, embark on strikes and lockout employers.

He said that is not the mission of the labour organisation and advised that they should rather resort to devising strategies that could help instil discipline and enhance productivity at workplaces.

Mr. Akwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), said the government's failure to mandate its management to negotiate the end-of-service (ESB) benefit is a source of great concern to organised labour.

"There are serious issues of equity involved in it. We would like to serve notice that this matter will not be allowed to rest to the detriment of workers."

Mr Abraham Tetteh Dian Okine, General Secretary of the PSWU, called on the government to review the law it passed in respect of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).