The Office of the Head of Civil Service (OHCS) has launched the 2021 Civil Service Week & Award Night Celebration in Accra under the theme: “Economic Transformation amid Covid-19 Pandemic: The Responsibilities of an Adaptive Civil Service”.
This year marks the third celebration of the Annual Civil Service Week and Awards Ceremony since its re institution in 2019.
The 2021 Civil Service Week Celebration focuses on the role the Civil Service has played and continues to play in helping Ghana achieve economic transformation even within this period of the pandemic. ‘the Awards Ceremony will also recognize outstanding performance of some Officers of the Civil Service for their significant contributions, which resulted in the success stories of the Service in the year 2020.
Touching on the success stories of the Service for year, 2020, the Chief Director at The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and the Chairman of the Planning Committee, on behalf, the Head of Civil Service, Nana Agyekum Dwamena, Evan Aggrey-Darko said, the week-long celebration will seek to project the strategic importance of the Civil Service for national development, engage the public and solicit feedback for reforms and policy formulation, deepen trust of citizens in the Civil Service in particular and the public sector in general and celebrate gallant Civil Service Staff and show appreciation for their dedicated service.
About 100 Civil Service staff will be rewarded in fulfillment of section 88 of the Civil Service Act, 1993, Act 327 during the Award Night slated on Friday, 13th August 2021 at the Accra International Conference Centre as Dr. Aggrey Darko revealed that that “the staff has been selected on merit basis from the various Ministries and Departments for their outstanding performance in service delivery. Other dignitaries who have contributed to the growth and development of the Civil Service over the years will also be recognized”.
Speaking on some of the achievements, Dr. Aggrey Darko noted that, “the Civil Service has adopted a robust Performance Management System to assess productivity in the Service.
Chief Directors sign agreement with the Head of the Civil Service and Directors/HoDs of Ministries and Departments sign Performance Agreements with their Chief Directors”.
The targets in these agreements are then cascaded to all Staff from Deputy Directors and below.
He said, “as part of the continuous improvement culture in the Civil Service, the Performance Management Instruments were revised in 2020 to: Align more effectively the targets set for Officers with the strategic direction of the organization and the national development agenda.
Identify key competencies and skills gaps of officers and institute the requisite training and development programs to improve performance and, provide opportunities for regular and constructive discussions between supervisors and officers
He also made the point that staff of the Civil Service have been trained on the new instrument and it has been deployed for use by all Ministries and Departments in 2021.
He, however, applauded all staff that in diverse ways, made inputs for the improvement of the document as well as facilitated the training of staff in the Civil Service.
“Performance Assessment for Heads of Diplomatic Missions, as well as all Foreign Service Officers is ongoing and has contributed largely to the attainment of Ghana’s foreign policy objectives”, he noted.
According to him, there is a process to digitize the revised template into an E-appraisal System and the framework for the E-appraisal System has been developed and OHCS is currently going through the procurement process to select a consultant for the assignment.
The Civil Service intends to pilot the Online Appraisal System in 2021 and fully roll it out in 2022.
On the issue of digitization in the Civil Service, Dr. Aggrey acknowledged the importance of Information and Communication Technology and how powerful it is for enhancing the engagement with the public as well as improving quality, transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services.
“As part of its role in the implementation of the 2018-2023 National Public Sector Reform Strategy (NPSR), the Civil Service has improved its digitization agenda to serve its clientele more efficiently and effectively”.
Story filed by Edzorna Francis Mensah