Koforidua Aug. 13, – A Minister of State, Mr David Sarpong Boateng, has stressed the government’s commitment to implement the final report of the Price Waterhouse Report on salaries and wages rationalisation after the on-going discussion on the draft. He assured civil servants that the government had not abandoned the idea of removing disparities that have characterised wages and salaries of workers. Mr Boateng was delivering the keynote address at the opening of a three-day emergency national executive council meeting of the Civil Servants Association of Ghana (CSAG) at Koforidua today. The meeting which is a prelude to the forthcoming national congress of the association later this year, would discuss topics including the SSNIT Pension Scheme and Cap 30, amendments to the Pension Law and the Price Waterhouse Report. Mr Boateng asked the participants to deliberate on issues like the VAT and electricity tariffs in a frank and dispassionate manner devoid of rancour and unbiased perceptions. He reminded them that with the establishment of the district assemblies, the civil service would be expected to provide them support services to plan, manage and monitor their socio-economic development programmes. He appealed to members of the association to let the good sense, maturity and tolerance which had characterized their relationship with the government so far to continue. The Head of the Civil Service, Dr Robert Dodoo, speaking on “the civil service and vision 2020: which way, reform or restructuring”, explained that the current Civil Service Performance Improvement Programme (CSPIP) launched in 1995 was aimed at adopting a more collective approach to problem solving. This is to move away from the old traditional style of command and control leadership and encourage civil servants to take more initiatives and develop their decision-making and managerial skills. On human resources management, he announced that the civil service council had approved new guide-lines to extend delegated authority for recruitment, training and promotions to the individual civil service organisations in order to reduce delays and associated frustrations in the present system.
