Labour wastages in the public sector of Ghana

The inefficiency observed in the public and civil service in Ghana is often lamented by people in the fields of administration and economics. Let us expand this observation, the causes and some possible solutions.

The government has the largest wage bill in the country, yet if the productivity of governmental organisations are measured and juxtaposed to those of the private sector, it will be revealed that the government is not getting what it should from the wages it pays. This should be a source of concern to the tax payer since this is an inefficient use of the taxes we pay from our hard earned incomes. If these inefficiencies are not removed the taxpayer would be slaving for a longer time before they get the desired benefits for which they pay taxes.

The number of people in the public and civil service are too many in some departments and organisations and are too few in others. For this reason, one will often notice duplications in the roles played by many a civil servant.

Take a walk pass offices of civil service organisations, especially outside the capital city, and you will find civil servants sitting outside their offices idle at hours that one should expect them to be doing work. Also, some leave their posts and travel, or will be in town and not go to work. This has gone on for so long.

Some too, have multiple employments or other businesses and so will leave their ‘government work’ to do private business.

The government can cut jobs, so that the few employees can be paid well to increase their satisfaction on the job and productivity. Duplication can be removed if there are just sufficient hands. Besides if their capacities are fully utilised, ordinarily they will not engage with other employments.

Supervision is ineffective in most public sector organisations. Many supervisors, directors etc, only get involved with office work and unnecessary protocols.  They do not get very much involved with getting the people beneath to do the ‘real work’.

Many of the staff at the top of most governmental organisations are often appointed not because they are qualified but either because they have connections to some ‘big man’, or a political bed-fellow. This does not help the organisations as these staffs are not able to deliver the best. People ought to be employed simply because they have the relevant skills and intellectual capacities to do the said job.

Many ghosts have found their way into the payroll of the living, this makes the salaries of the living insufficient, these ghosts ought to be chased out; these are able to come in because of the large number of employees in the civil service.

The government can take after private sector businesses and learn from them how they are able to arrange their affairs to achieve efficiency.

Politics in civil service should be placed in its rightful place. Reckless politics is expensive for the majority of stakeholders. Only the square pegs and their relations benefit whiles the majority of the ordinary people suffer.

Civil Servants should be as professional as possible in the discharge of their duty and uphold integrity.

Appointing officials should as well, appoint people who are objectively capable to take roles/employment.

Governments in Africa have not succeeded in cutting the size of public sector workers due to excess demand for public sector jobs and their desire to give employment to their supporters. Thus they would have to find alternative job opportunities for these people lest we will keep experiencing inefficiency in that sector.

Much has been said about this by many, but what has been done to tackle it? The most important solution is to take action to solve it.