In our last issue, our correspondent analysed the existing Ghana Civil Service structure within the context of the colonial legacy.The first step taken by the Peoples National Defence Council (P.N.D.C.) to reconstruct the society was the setting up of People's Defence Committees (PDC) in the towns and villages and then Workers' Defence Committees at all working places. The establishment of WDCS in the ministries presented peculiar problems because all civil servants are employees of the government and the management or employer is the government itself. However, it was decided by the PDC Co-ordinating Secretary that the Senior Civil Servants should be regarded as the management so the WDC's was formed with the labourers, drivers, messengers and the clerical officers.
In this concluding piece, the writer reviews the current reorganisation exercise against the background of chaos and confusion.
MEETINGS
The management was requested to have a representative of the WDC present at all meetings. This arrangement was ridiculous and completely unwork- able in the technical meetings held in such Ministries as Health, Agriculture and Education. At the initial stages the WDCs were invited to these top meet- ings but after a few meetings during which the representatives could not make any contributions they voluntarily stayed away and devoted their attention to matters that concerned their immédiate interest transport to take workers home and how commodities and food items are to be shared among workers.Serious policies like importation of drugs to the hospitals, agricultural policies in the country, financial support to the rural areas and various establishment were left to the Secretaries and some few senior officers of the various ministries to handle.
The WDCs started off with quite a bang, some top officers in various ministries were dismissed overnight without going through the usual Civil Service procedure for dismissal. However, it soon became obvious that the WDCs were superficial - they were only testing the pulse of the system, as it were. There was the need to restructure the Civil Service properly. The committee set up for the re-struct- uring exercise included the Head of the Civil Service and eventually after a top meeting at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration all the Ministries were given a model. organisational chart to discuss and then fashion each Ministry's original structure to suit the new one.
The main points in the restructuring is that the post of the Principal Secretary is abolished. In its place there is to be the PNDC Secretary, followed by the Deputy Secretary then the Chief Administrator who will share the same political views as the government in power and so will automatically go out with the government.
There will be four directors in charge of Administration, Public Relations, Data (Statistics) and then Legal depart- ment in every Ministry. These four directors report to the Chief Administrator. According to the Committee these five posts are top posts which are open to any members of the public who qualify as well as top public servants.
The new structure was to come into effect on 2nd January 1983 but at the time of writing this article the Ministries are still operating with the old structure while the new structure is still being discussed.
INSTITUTIONS
So far the only achievement of the restructuring exercise is apathy and confusion in the Ministries. The main idea of the restructuring exercise is to abolish the administrative class, but the heart of the matter is that for a long time the administrative class consisting of the Principal Secretaries down to the assistant secretaries, have been managing the ministries, the various district councils and supervising the activities of the Public Corporations with the assistance of the executive, personnel and accounting classes. There is a distinct organisational chart indicating the command structure and thus ensuring discipline in the service.The Principal Secretaries this writer interviewed on the restructuring exercise indicated that they were aware that the whole idea is to get rid of them. And yet it is these same administrators who are supposed to implement the new structure.
Moreover, there have been so many different utterances from some of the PNDC Secretaries on what to do with the Civil Service. Some of them have said that there were too many officials sitting in the offices and it was high time that the majority of them were demobilised to the farms to produce food. Others have indicated in public speeches that the restructuring allowed a top heavy type of administration.
The effect of these divergent utterances on the service is to further compound the problem. It is very usual now for the politicians to issue instruct- ions and policies on radio and television or through the press while nothing has in fact been communicated in writing on the files. Civil Servants have always only acted on written instructions from the authorities but in the state of affairs in the country today one could even be penalised for not acting on verbal and unofficial instructions.
ECONOMY
One other factor which must not be overlooked is the state of the economy. The implementation of the new structure means a lot of capital outlay to meet the salaries of all the new posts that would be created. However, it is known that the Accountant General's Department is unable to meet the salary and allowances demand at present. Any further demand would simply be impossible. There is one vital fact that is also being overlooked by the PNDC. There are not many things basically wrong with the service but human nature being what it is, there are all kinds of characters occupying the top posts in the service. There are the megalomaniacs who do not want to hear any other views beside their own. There are the eccentrics who always carry official files in their cars, or lock themselves inside their government offices to avoid coming into contact with the public, there are the jelly back-boned top officials who cannot take simple decisions on issues and thereby delay important matters etc. These are the dead wood which must be purged.A viable way out of this quandary I will be an effective decentralisation of not only the Local Government Ministry but the whole government structure. Most of the work like personnel, accounts and many others should be done at the district level. The districts should be strengthened with the new directors and chief administrators. The Ministries would then be left with the Secretary and few officials to work only on policies.
At the time of writing a nurse or a pupil teacher working at Bolgatanga has to travel to the Ministry of Finance for a loan to buy a bicycle.
Anybody who is put in a position where all the staff in the country have to come and bow down before him for very tiny but essential requests like annual leave will definitely become too big for his shoes.
The decentralization exercise which is being carried on at the moment is not being handled with the seriousness it deserves. At the moment too many things are being done at the same time and the end result is the present chaos in the system.
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The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow beings.
William Hazlitt
