“It’s Not Going to Be Business As Usual”-Baba Jamal Warns Public Servants

Baba Jamal addressing the audience

The Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, and M.P for Akwatia, Hon. Baba Jamal has issued a stern warning to public servants at the various assemblies in the country to take their work seriously, saying “It’s not going to be business as usual”.

“We are now a local government service and we are supposed to be serving the community, so we need to change our attitude towards government business”, Baba Jamal stated.

The Deputy Minister gave the caution in Ho at an orientation programme on street-naming and property numbering for officials of the 25 municipal and district assemblies in the Volta region, in which some Coordinating directors were absent.

“Some of the Coordinating Directors have become tin gods in the districts, sitting in the office and trying to frustrate processes” he said and stated that the ministry is taking note of the conduct of such directors and will not tolerate such conducts.

Baba Jamal stated that “There are a lot of people looking for jobs, so if you have the job and you are not ready to do it, give way to those who are ready to come in and do the job”.

On the street-naming project, the deputy minister and MP said it is embarrassing for a middle-income country like Ghana not to have a proper street addressing system.

‘Locating places in this country, is very embarrassing, even our neighbor, Nigeria with all the confusion has a proper addressing system’ he said.

Mr. Jamal said the project was very crucial to the president hence his directive for it to be completed within 18 months. Because of this reason, he said the project was linked to the key performance indicator for Regional Ministers and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives, who must ensure that it was executed within the stipulated time-frame.

The deputy minister further noted that the Ministry is liaising with the National Service Secretariat to raise personnel "trained in geometrics and physical planning" to ensure that the project goes on well.

Baba Jamal as part of the orientation, presented equipment to the regional office of the Town and Country Planning to set up a Global Information System (GIS) to co-ordinate the project in the region and said similar equipment will be made available to all district offices of the Town and country planning department for the prosecution of the project. The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, said he will ensure the completion of the projects on schedule and commended the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Developmentfor the initiative.