Lukewarm attitude of civil servants dampens good intentions

New Patriotic Party (NPP) youth activist has observed that the lukewarm attitude of some Civil Servants towards the implementation of government policies had militated against the good intentions of the programmes to improve the living conditions of the people. Mr Samuel Jinapor Abdulai mentioned for instance, the National Health Insurance Scheme, as one among a dozen of policies that the government had initiated to improve the health of the people. He lamented however that, bureaucratic tendencies at the implementation stages had become a source of concern to the government. Mr Abdulai, who is in the Northern Region to explain government policies and programmes to the people and find out issues affecting the party, made the observation at a media encounter in Tamale on Wednesday. He said the country needed a civil service, whose leaders were disciplined and visionary to move the country forward, even in spite of the harsh and unpleasant conditions under which they worked. He, therefore, called on the government to meet all challenges confronting the service by providing the needed logistics and improving the working conditions of the service to enhance productivity.
On the question of a Northern politician to bear the flag of the NPP in the 2004 general election, Mr Abdulai said, "The NPP has a democratic tradition". "It is for congress to determine who leads the party and the decision is devoid of any ethnic considerations. "The wisdom of congress would prevail and we must all be prepared to follow the choice of congress," he said. On the Millennium Change Account (MCA), the youth activist said the criteria used in selecting the beneficiary districts were not discriminatory. He explained that even though the Upper East and Upper West regions had been identified as poor and had potential in agricultural production, other regions might have comparative advantage over them. "It is government intention to support all regions in the country to harness its potentials to enhance national growth," he said. Mr Abdulai said the government would therefore, not shun its responsibility of ensuring that the two regions got their fair share of the national cake to exploit their potentials for the rapid development of the people.