PERFORMANCE OF GOVERNMENT APPOINTEES We also want to use this opportunity to inform the Ministers and Government appointees that the holidays are over and the game is on. Ghanaians are anxiously waiting for the better Ghana Agenda promise to be delivered. We commend the President for signing performance bond with all the ministers but it must not end there. The monitoring and evaluation mechanism of his Ministers must be strengthened and made more transparent so that Ghanaians will be able to ascertain performing and non-performing appointees. It is therefore about time the performance appraisal of government officials are made public. This will put Ministers on their toes. One ministry that needs commendation is the Women, Gender and Social Protection Ministry which depicted pro-activeness to the poor and vulnerable Ghanaians who lost millions of property through the recent rampant fire outbreak. The Ministry of Trade and industry cannot be left out of this commendation. We are aware of some enviable achievements of this Ministry since its core mandate remains the lead policy advisor to government on trade, industry, and private sector development. For instance the Implementation of the prescription in the new industry Policy and its Sector Support Programme to enable manufacturing Companies take advantage, Initiated Industrial Policy and the inception phase of the industrial Sector Support Programme, Significant progress has also been made in respect of the implementation of the key projects, which include the establishment of the Industrial Development Fund (IDF) Identification of the key industrial raw material, development of guidelines for strategic interventions and technical audit of selected manufacturing companies to identify their technical gaps for the necessary interventions. We are also aware that, the ministry of water resource, work and housing has also completed the following Urban water Project Additional work or Kumasi water Supply Project. Koforidua Water Projects (I,II&III) e.t.c The restoration of the energy fluctuations has also gained the confidence of the energy and petroleum ministry but more ought to be done to commensurate the promises made in the NDC manifesto. YDs wish to categorically state that during the last 9 (nine) months, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) stand tall in the performance of their mandate. One important achievement of the MELR is industrial harmony, peace and security notwithstanding the few challenges that government has face in industrial strikes. This feat has been made possible due to an effective tripartite collaboration and in the implementation of the single spine pay policy. We realized that out of about 480,000 public sector workers, about 470,000 have successfully been migrated unto the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) constituting 99% of the entire work without any union opting out. It will be recalled that under the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS), within two years of its implementation, all health services workers decided to opt out. But under the SSSS not a single union has protested to opt out. Again whiles the Ghana Statistical Services furnishes us with monthly inflation figures, most of which means nothing to us, the MELR has almost completed a Labour Market Information System comprising all stakeholders of the economy so that we can have a monthly labour statistics of the employment, unemployment situation and the number of jobs government has created in the country. These significant achievements are unprecedented and deserve commendation and recognition. The MELR is also seriously embarking on a demand driven skills training programme through NVTI, OIC and ICCES. Studies have shown that 70% of those who graduate in the above mentioned training institutions either gain jobs immediately in the former sector or are able to establish themselves and create more jobs because of the certification process involved. Another worthy of praise by the MELR is the fact that they have been very successful in negotiating with over 100 social partners through a Public Standing Joint Negotiation Committee. Worker agitations has reduced considerably apart from market premium and grading structure but here again government white paper on guidelines for the determination of market premium under the SSSS has salvage the situation. Whiles the determination of base pay was started in February and concluded in August 2013 workers are aware that they will get a back pay and so in much the same vein we wish to recommend that in order not to destabilize the economy, government must as a matter of urgency stop paying the interim market premium until the labour survey is conducted to ascertain who is qualified to enjoy market premium when government is able to tell which skills is critical and in short supply and therefore will require market premium and back pay accordingly. As it is now for instance in the health sector everybody including messengers are getting market premium simply because the policy have been abused. If done, it will go a long way to reduce significantly the excess market premiums which are being paid to almost everybody not qualified after the Ho accord. Because most of the achievements of the MELR are intangible many are those who under-estimate their role in the economy but we (YDs) have underscore their importance to the extent that no government in the world can ever survive when labour rise up against that government. It is worthy of note that industrial peace and harmony has security implication to the state and has the propensity to negatively affect the performance of other ministries, agencies and departments. It is in the light of the above assessment and evaluation that we find the MELR the most achieved since January 7, 2013. Young Democrats wish to commend the Minister Nii Armah Ashittey and his able deputy Hon Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere for their team work spirit. We urge all other ministers to work as a team to improve the wellbeing and improve on the living standard of the Ghanaian people. We will not relent in our effort to expose any non performing and corrupt minister because that will be the way to ensure that the better Ghana Agenda is fulfilled however we are particularly not happy with the ministry of tourism’s performance and urge the minister to up her performance. We urge the minister of justice and Attorney General to urgently respond to the directive given by the President to prosecute those found to have been corrupt in the GYEEDA report. Justice delayed is justice denied and so we give the minister two weeks to prosecute the mentioned officials to show to Ghanaians that the President is committed to fighting corruption as all Ghanaians have known him for. Commendation also goes to the minister of youth and sports for his determination and zeal to achieve. We thank you all especially the media for coming and wish our motherland great and strong. We finally wish to extend our heart-felt condolences to the bereaved family of Prof. Kofi Awoonor. We have are also worried about the growing insecurity in Africa and the world at large and that Ghanaian should be very grateful for the democracy we are all enjoying. One again we cannot forget how far we have come as a country and the various contributions that have lead to the development of this country. We should therefore not take the peace and security of Ghana for granted since we cannot afford to lose our leaders in this sad manner. May the late professor’s soul rest in perfect peace. Source: Young Democrats Press Conference (24th Sept. 2013)
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 06:39:11 +0000
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