By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Oct 06, GNA – The Local Government Service (LGS) has authorised the rationalisation and redistribution of staff across Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to address disparities in staffing levels and improve efficiency in local government administration.
Professor Lord Kwaku Mensah, the Head, Local Government Service, who announced this, said the exercise would move staff from overstaffed MMDAs to areas where there were shortages based on staffing norms, competencies, positions and operational needs.
He said the exercise was not intended as a form of punishment but to ensure that the right number of personnel with the required competencies were available at the right places to improve service delivery.
Professor Mensah announced this when he engaged staff of the Northern Regional Coordinating Council (NRCC) in Tamale on Monday as part of his working visit to the region.
He also visited Savelugu, Sagnarigu and the Tamale Assemblies to engage their staff members, obtain first-hand information on their operations, working conditions, achievements and challenges.
The engagement at the NRCC was attended by staff from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, who took turns to share operational challenges and concerns with the Head of the Service.
Prof Mensah said the decision to rationalise staffing followed observations of uneven distribution of personnel across MMDAs where some had more staff than required while others lacked the minimum number of officers needed to operate effectively.
He cited Tamale Metropolitan Assembly as an example saying it could have about 17 budget officers under the staffing norms while some districts might not have the minimum four administrative officers required.
He said Regional Coordinating Directors had consequently been instructed to begin the process of moving officers to areas where their services were needed in accordance with the rules and conditions of service.
He said officers, who had stayed in particular locations beyond the required period, could also be posted to other areas including headquarters or outside their current regions as part of the workforce planning and rationalisation process.
He urged staff to comply with official postings warning that failure to do so could attract consequences under the Service’s rules and scheme of service.
Professor Mensah said decisions on postings, promotions, deployment and resource allocation would be guided by reliable personnel and operational data to reduce perceptions of bias, favouritism and nepotism.
He said the Service was developing web-based Local Government Service Operational Tools to digitise human resource and operational processes and provide real-time data to support management decisions.
He said the accuracy of information supplied by Human Resource units at the regional and assembly levels would therefore be critical to the success of the system.
He said the Service was also focused on professionalising its workforce by promoting discipline, ethical conduct, punctuality and adherence to institutional procedures.
Professor Mensah expressed concern about lateness and absenteeism, saying observations from his recent visits to three MMDAs showed staff attendance levels of about 30, 45 and 50 per cent respectively at the times he visited.
He urged Coordinating Directors and Heads of Department to strengthen supervision and ensure that staff were not merely physically present at work but were productive and responsive to their assigned responsibilities.
He cautioned staff against disregarding reporting lines and supervisory authority and said weak departmental leadership and poor adherence to institutional hierarchy could undermine coordination and service delivery.
He reminded staff to observe professional dress codes and desist from reporting to work in inappropriate attire.
Professor Mensah also raised concerns about alleged attempts by some Human Resource officers to alter dates of birth in official records to extend the working lives of staff.
He said the integrity of personnel records was essential for effective human resource planning and warned that officers involved in altering official records could face administrative, disciplinary and legal consequences.
He urged staff to desist from active frontline partisan politics, saying public servants were required to maintain political neutrality and ensure continuity in public administration regardless of changes in government.
On staff development, he said the Service was targeting a minimum of 40 hours of training for every staff member annually, adding that the Service was considering the use of a Learning Management System to facilitate online training, self-tutoring and assessments while reducing the cost of continuous professional development.
He said training opportunities, including short courses, conferences and job-class association programmes should be better structured to improve staff competencies.
He said management would also introduce a more coordinated calendar for job-class association conferences to reduce the pressure such programmes placed on the resources of RCCs and MMDAs.
Mr Ali Adolf John, Northern Regional Minister appealed to the Management of the Service to consult the RCCs before transferring officers, whose services were considered valuable to the region.
Professor Mensah said he had no difficulty working with officers currently serving in the region and wanted effective public servants to be retained where their experience and understanding of the local government system could contribute to development.
He said officers were public servants and should work with the government of the day irrespective of their political backgrounds while also emphasising need for discipline and effective performance.
He commended Professor Mensah for undertaking the tour of the region to familiarise himself with the actual working conditions of officers and the operations of the various MMDAs.
GNA
Edited by Eric K Amoh/Benjamin Mensah
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