The Presidency has urged all Ministers of State, Chief Executive Officers of State Institutions, and other political appointees to desist from participating in or accepting awards from commercial organisations unless first authorised.
Callistus Mahama, the Secretary to the President, issued the decree in response to President John Dramani Mahama’s worries over the increasing practice of public officials being recognised by private organisations as “best-performing,” “most outstanding,” or “most influential” office holders.
The Presidency claims that many of these organisations are mainly unknown, have ambiguous credentials, and lack transparent or verifiable standards for evaluating public officials’ performance.
“His Excellency the President has noted with concern the increasing trend of Ministers of State, Chief Executive Officers of State Institutions, and other public officials participating in and accepting awards from various private organisations purporting to recognise them as the “best-performing”, “most outstanding”, or “most influential” public office holders.”
It cautioned that such actions run the risk of compromising the integrity of public service, fostering false impressions of government performance, and subjecting the government to public censure and humiliation.
The Presidency emphasised that holding public office is a serious duty and that commercial award programs or privately produced ceremonies that lack set norms and public scrutiny cannot be used to gauge performance.
Therefore, unless specifically allowed by the Office of the President, the President has ordered all public servants to “refrain from participating in, sponsoring, endorsing, attending, or accepting awards from such organisations.”
The administration is still committed to carrying out its development program and policy pledges, especially those specified in the 2024 National Democratic Congress manifesto and established performance goals, the statement continued.
It further stated that “tangible outcomes, measurable impact, effective service delivery, prudent management of public resources, and the successful implementation of government policies and programmes” shall be the basis for evaluating ministers’ and chief executive officers’ actual performance.
The Presidency also revealed that a thorough performance evaluation of ministers and chief executive officers will be carried out in due time, and the results will inform choices on future restructuring, reassignment, and retention.
Therefore, instead of pursuing recognition from external award systems thought to have dubious legitimacy, public officials were instructed to concentrate on their core missions and service delivery.
Source: newsthemegh.com