The Head of the Civil Service, Nana Kwesi Agyekum-Dwamena has revealed that by January 2023, all activities of the civil service would be digitalized to improve efficiency and productivity.
Nana Agyekum-Dwamena said the project aims to join the rest of government agencies and institutions on the ongoing digitalization drive to ensure files and records are protected, make easy retrieval of records and improve evidence-based policy decisions.
He made this revelation at the ongoing 2022 Civil Service Week Celebration launch in Accra on the theme; ‘Digitalisation in the Civil Service of Ghana, an Agenda for Improved Service Delivery,’ entreated all chief directors, directors, senior officers and all Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSA) to embrace the agenda to improve development.
Even though he acknowledged Ghana’s role as one of the leading digital countries in Sub-Sharan Africa, there are still bottlenecks that require inclusiveness to further accelerate the growth hence the need to leverage on technology to reap productivity gains in its performance management systems (e-appraisal).
He said based on this, the service will use the e-appraisal system to measure the participation and compliance to timeline of officers on the grades of deputy directors/analogous grades and below in the performance management, access employees’ performance concerning set targets, serve as a guide for decision making, provide real-time monitoring and enhance efficiency.
Nana Agyekum-Dwamena said the digital drive has reduced the burden of having a huge pack of applications of people wanting to be recruited into the civil service adding that since 2019, over 2000 workers have been recruited through the e-recruitment platform.
“This he said has brought competitiveness, credibility and transparency in the recruitment processes. The system also allows an applicant to go through the selection process irrespective of their location and increase public trust in government processes and service delivery,” he stated.
Again, he said the system has created convenience in the online promotional interview during the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and is in line with the National Public Sector Reforms Strategy to clear the backlog of officers in the regional and districts outside Accra.
The head said the service will continue to deliver on its mandate of improving productivity and this he said can be done through the digital drive to train its staff to reduce time and cost and the risk of an officer having to travel long distances to access training.
He said in 2021, over 7000 civil service staff participated in e-learning programmes and workshops and developed capacity for 6,935 officers in various schemes of service. In the same year, 24 directors grades and 30 other officers participated in senior management courses and diploma in Public Administration courses and 18 staff were sponsored to pursue masters and PhD courses.
Outlining the activities for celebration, Nana Agyekum-Dwamena said the activities started on Wednesday, July 20 with a clean-up exercise, on Friday, July 22, there will be a thanksgiving service, July 25 to 28, will see policy fair, tourism day and health screening.
The others are on July 26, there will be a public lecture on the main theme which will be delivered by the President of the Association of Ghana Industries, July 27 to 28, will also see the final football tournament and July 29, 2022, will climax the event with an awards ceremony at Alisa Hotel with the Vice President as the guest of honour.
During his welcoming address, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr John Yaw Agbeko said the week-long celebration will allow the service to reflect on the challenges, achievements, way forward, network and collaborate to improve service delivery.
Mr Agbeko said the civil service will not relent in its effort to sustain the best state principles o to achieve efficiency, and accountability and improve productivity in the country.
