Recognise the importance of ICT--- Veep tells civil servants

THE Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama has urged Civil Servants to recognise the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to the service and create an efficient working environment at the workplace.
“We must improve how fast we adopt to technology to create an efficient working environment” he emphasised and charged the leadership of the Civil Servants Association of Ghana (CSAG) to ensure that the use of ICT was improved and effectively incorporated into the activities of the Service.
The Vice President was speaking at the first ever Activist Awards organised by CSAG in Accra, where recipients of the awards were each presented with Laptops in addition to their plaques and other awards.
To those who were no longer in the Service, he said “its is never too late to learn ICT and those of you in the service should utilise the computer, not just for games, but you can also use them to communicate with other users to make your work easier”.
He said the association had fully matured after 40 years of existence and that he had no doubt about the need for government to fast track reforms to put a sense of urgency in the Civil Service as indicated on placards during the May Day celebration.
The Vice President reiterated government’s commitment to do everything possible to bring the Single Spine Salary Structure into operation and announced that the president had directed a committee to look into the structure for implementation.
He gave the assurance that the government would support all the groups that had brought proposals for housing projects before it and disclosed that the government was in touch with a company called Fast-Build which was capable of building a house in four weeks, for public servants.
“We will inspect demonstration of these houses to ensure that they are habitable and put in place special mortgages to allow workers to acquire their own houses”, he said.
The Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao urged the leadership of the association to keep their members abreast of government policies and programmes towards the country’s development agenda.
He also gave the assurance that the government would keep its promises to them as a partner in governance and would not shed its responsibility to ensure that the Civil Service was on track.
“The use of dialogue and negotiation is highly laudable. We will offer you support in the sensitisation of your members for the facilitation of human resource for national development”, he added.
The President of CSAG, Mr Robertson Allotey said the association had gone through hiccups of growth and development since its inception in 1968.
He said the government could do more for Civil Servants not just in terms of increase in salaries but also in the areas of recognising the value of the services they continue to render to the socio-economic development of the country.
The awards, he said, were for members of the association who have demonstrated positive activism, unfetted spirit of volunteerism, projected the values of the association, efficiency and hard work in the course of their membership with the association.
In all 52 persons were selected for the awards, 31 from the regions at the regional May Day durbar and 21 at the National level.
The award for the Activist of the Year, which was presented by the Vice President went to Mr William E. Kemevor who was presented with a Toshiba Laptop, GH¢2,000, a plaque, a certificate and a cloth of the association.
The first and second runner ups went to Mr Daniel Amamo and Mr James Tiga who received GH¢1,000 and GH¢500 respectively in addition to Toshiba Laptops, plaques, certificates and cloths.
A Special award was given to the Head of the Civil Service, Mr Issaka who is also the Chairman of the Welfare Committee of CSAG, for his long service to the association.