Economics Of Time; A Case Study Of Ghana

It is of great delight to know Ghana has a new president, who has proven to have an in-depth knowledge on how the grassroots to the apex operational mechanism of the entire Ghana system, its functions and how they operate according to his maiden state of the Nation Address.

Please refer to the link below https://citifmonline.com/.../21/nana-addo-delivers-maiden-state-of-the-nation-address-

It was realized, that the whole body of the speech delivered on 21^st February 2017 could be thematically be structured as follows

1. Introduction of himself, historic relationship and commendations
2. Identifying core problems facing Ghana
3. Establishing, proposing solutions to be used as an antidote and methods to fulfill political promises

Critical analysis into the speech; the following stated below were raised as concerns, which needed further critical scrutiny and evaluations because they have been a political rhetoric over the years since the inception of the 4th Republic with no genuine transformation;

1. Efficiency in government machinery
2. Time efficiency and management

The focus of this article will respond to the analysis of time efficiency and management. Akufo-Addo (2017) stated “There are some areas of our lives in which we can all demonstrate the change for which the people of Ghana has voted for punctuality”. He further asserts “Over the years, it has become acceptable practices that official functioning invariably start and close late.”

The text of the President on “Time efficiency and management” never indicate a strong positioning to apply critical measures to curb this menace but propose a general call for just attitudinal change in his governance.

With this article, I request his Excellency the President to further reconsider that preposition because such menace has stayed for too long in the Ghanaian system hence transitioned to a status of tradition in the system. This Article argues on the following variables as the basis requesting the President to redefine his stand on the initial proposition per his speech.

These variables studied by the Bastiat Institute is known to be intertwined with government machinery and time efficiency with its management as earlier stated. There are artificial setup barriers in government agencies service delivery, methodological time constraint to create another pattern of business agenda for acclaimed cartel of links to act as mediation expert in the name of fast tracking the same services to get the required service delivered on a standard time efficiency for exorbitant fees, including what you will be charged by the government agency itself.

This has been a key instrument killing the passion of most private investment and aspired vigorous private sector growth because this is the sector that equate money as time and we have another sector working whether efficient or inefficient will be paid with tax-payers money as a result very insensitive to time effect on productivity and economic impact periods.

This article takes a very critical look at the Passport securing office at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Registrar general office, the Police and the Custom operations as victims, yet not limited to these agencies alone.

Some of the Police Officers may not care of the passengers in the Public Bus and time efficiency, could pound on a driver and delay the entire passenger crew, when the driver refuse to succumb to their request. And with frustrations causing some travelling passengers to complain, the police which our studies captured and observed were seen to uniformly be rude, as a crime to question their duties. And the axiom of this deliberate time constraints are as a result of Individuals self –interest serving agenda.

These cannot just be treated generally as corruption cases because it will encourage a situation of slip of oversight, a means to keep it recurring as an unsolvable situation to assume the stands as a tradition of the system.

Emmanuel Tweneboah Senzu, PhD., DBA., CBE.
Fellow Bastiat Institute
Visiting Professor to West End University Centre for Research & Development Studies-Ghana