LAUNCH OF CITI ZEN CHARTER FOR EIGHT MDA’S

The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs. Mary Chinery-Hesse has launched the New Charters for eight Ministries, Departments Agencies (MDAs) in Accra. The preparation of new service charters came as a directive by His Excellency the President to all Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in a bid to ensuring excellence in public service delivery. The signing was witnessed by Members of the General Public.

The MDAs involved were Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, the Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, the Ghana Tourist Board and the Ghana Standards Board. Others are the Department of Urban Roads, the Ghana Highway Authority, the Food and Drugs Board and the Public Services Commission.

In a statement, Mrs. Chinery-Hesse said the concept seeks to improve public service delivery system by defining standards in a timely manner. She added that, “it’s a serious agenda of the President to redeem the sinking image of public service providers and to empower the ordinary man and woman in their effort to access satisfactory public services”.

The New Charter provides essential information that citizens need to know about the services and functions of public service agencies, the manner in which these services can be accessed and the timeframes within which they should be performed.

Signing the various Charters, the Ministers and heads of institutions stated that the New Charter is a key performance target for any public institution since it is through the charter that the stakeholders and the public are able to know and understand the services offered by the public sector agencies. The Charter will therefore enable the MDAs discharge their functions in a more open, supportive and transparent manner and will serve as an avenue to reduce bureaucracy and a key area to tackle corruption.

They iterated that by the signing of the Charter, the MDAs would be provided with a definitive indication of the laid down procedures of service delivery. They therefore appealed to clients especially the MDA’s to help in achieving the objectives of the charter by adhering strictly to the procedures outlined for services to be provided by the Ministries.

The signing of the New Charters was witnessed by Mrs. Rose Karikari Annan, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Employers Association and Nana Owusu Afari, First Vice President of the Association of Ghana Industries on behalf of the general public. The event brings the number of New Charters launched for public service organizations to twenty-two.

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