CUTS Urges Public Institutions to Treat Citizens as Customers, Not Subjects
As the world marks Customer Service Week, a leading research and public policy think tank, CUTS International, Accra, is calling on the Government and all public institutions to retool and reset their approach to customer service delivery to meet the evolving needs of citizens and businesses. The organization observes that, while private sector entities have made significant strides in improving client relations, many public sector agencies continue to lag far behind, undermining public trust and national productivity.
According to a recent survey on customer service delivery in Ghana, the public sector performed the worst in customer service compared to the private. The report noted that long response times, lack of feedback mechanisms, and bureaucratic red tape continue to frustrate citizens and investors alike. This situation, CUTS notes, not only erodes confidence in public institutions but also hampers the government’s own digital transformation and service delivery goals.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Appiah Kusi Adomako, West Africa Director of CUTS International Accra, said, “Customer service is not only about smiles and greetings, it is about responsiveness, efficiency, and accountability. Every citizen and business that engages a government agency is a customer, and they deserve the same level of respect and service quality expected from the private sector.”
He added that while Ghana has made notable investments in public sector reforms and digital initiatives, these have not translated into improved customer experience.
“Telephone lines listed on most MMDAs’ websites are out of order, and if you manage to get your call through the functional ones, no one will answer your call. Some agencies do not accept electronic filing. Now it appears the only place where electronic filing works is the payment of taxes to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). This defeats the purpose of digitization and reflects weak institutional discipline,” he said.
Mr. Adomako lamented several systemic issues that continue to undermine customer service within Ghana’s public sector. He noted that many public agencies demonstrate poor responsiveness to electronic communication, often failing to reply to emails or online submissions despite the legal mandate under the Electronic Transactions Act. In addition, there remains an overreliance on paper-based processes, as most public offices still insist on hardcopy submissions and in-person follow-ups, which runs contrary to the government’s own digitalization agenda. He observed that although nearly every public institution has a customer service charter that sets out service standards and timelines, these commitments are rarely adhered to or monitored.
Another troubling practice, he said, is the informal handling of official correspondence, where public officers frequently request that citizens send documents to their personal email accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook, a practice that compromises professionalism and data security. He highlighted the lack of public engagement channels for citizens to report issues such as faulty traffic lights, broken streetlights, or unsafe public infrastructure, resulting in a culture of neglect and weakened accountability.
Mr. Adomako noted that these deficiencies collectively send a wrong message to the public and development partners. “When citizens or investors cannot get timely responses from public agencies, they lose confidence in government institutions. This directly affects service uptake, tax compliance, and investment decisions. Good governance begins with good service delivery,” he stressed.
The Need for a Public Sector Service Reset
CUTS International Accra is urging government ministries, departments, and agencies to embark on what it calls a Public Sector Service Reset: a deliberate reorientation of attitudes, systems, and accountability frameworks around customer service excellence. This reset, according to CUTS, should focus on three key areas: capacity building, technology adoption and integration, and accountability and feedback loops.
Citizens as Customers, Not Subjects and Spectators
CUTS emphasizes that public service delivery is a contract between the state and its citizens. Citizens are not subjects to be managed but customers whose taxes fund government operations. Hence, responsiveness to citizens’ needs and feedback is both a duty and a right.
“Customer service is at the heart of democratic governance. When people cannot get answers, when complaints go unanswered, when institutions hide behind bureaucracy, trust in government weakens. Rebuilding that trust begins with listening and responding,” said Mr. Adomako.
CUTS International is calling on His Excellency the President to provide policy leadership and enforce accountability across ministries, departments, and agencies to ensure that service delivery is prioritized as part of the performance evaluation of Chief Directors and Heads of Agencies.
A Renewed Commitment
As the world celebrates Customer Service Week, CUTS International calls on every public servant to reflect on the role they play in shaping citizens’ perceptions of government. Every unanswered email, every ignored complaint, and every unnecessary delay has a human cost: lost time, lost trust, and lost opportunities.
“Ghana’s aspiration to build an efficient, accountable, and citizen-responsive public sector cannot be achieved without a cultural shift in how we treat our citizens. Let’s take advantage of the government’s reset agenda to retool, retrain, and reset the public service to put the citizen first,” Mr. Adomako added.
