Implementing Mahama’s 24-Hour Economy Policy
Part 8: Service Times and Delivery Channels For High in Demand Public Services Extended
Part 8 of this series of articles presents an implementation strategy for service times and delivery channels for high in demand public services extended. This is Outcome 4 of the High-Level Program Design outlined in Part 2 of this article series. It draws on the findings of the World Bank’s Ghana Business Ready Report (i.e. B-READY) launched in Accra, Ghana last month to articulate a strategy for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs); Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assembles (MMDAs) and State Owned Enterprises (SOE) to develop and deliver high quality public services.
Ghana is not Business Ready
The 2024 World Bank B-READY report launched in Accra last month indicates Ghana lacks an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and business growth.
B-READY assesses countries on subjects essential for private sector development.
There are three pillars – Regulatory Framework; Public Services; and Operational Efficiency.
Pillar I: The Regulatory Framework consists of the rules and regulations that enterprises must follow as they open, operate (or expand), and close (or reorganize) a business. It examines the subject of clarity, fairness, and the sustainability of rules and regulations.
Pillar 2: Public Services covers the facilities that the government provides to support compliance with regulations and the institutions and infrastructure that enable business activities. It covers digitalization, interoperability and transparency of public services among others.
Pillar 3: Operational Efficiency captures the ease of compliance with the regulatory framework and the effective use of public services directly relevant to enterprises.
B-READY covers 10 topics for each of the three pillars.
These are Business Entry, Business Location, Utility Services, Labor, Financial Services, International Trade, Taxation, Dispute Resolution, Market Competition, and Business Insolvency.
Ghana ranked fairly well on Regulatory Framework in B-READY. However, it ranked poorly in Public Services and Operational Efficiency. This ranking validates Ghana’s endemic problem of poor implementation of otherwise good policies, rules and regulations.
B-READY measures several indicators. Below are a few for Ghana.
It takes 57 days to register a new domestic firm; 67 days to register a foreign firm; 253 days to obtain a building permit; 120 days to obtain environmental permits; 28 days for electrical connection; and 14 days to clear imports.
It takes 180 days for arbitration. The cost of arbitration is 35% of the claim value. The cost to enforce a final court judgement is 18% of the claim value.
It takes 132 days to receive payment under government contract. Definitely this finding will be disputed by the numerous contractors and service providers who are owed by government institutions.
One consistent finding of B-READY is the non-existence or low availability of digital public services in Ghana. Where they exist, there is low interoperability across various MDAs and MMDAs.
For instance, an MMDA should be able to digitally access the registration data of an enterprise at the Office of the Registrar of Companies or Department of Cooperatives for the purpose of issuing or renewing a business operating permit.
B-READY assessed 50 countries in 2024.
Some developing economies ranked among the top 10 in several categories. They include Rwanda for public services and operational efficiency, Colombia for its regulatory framework and public services, and Georgia for its regulatory framework and operational efficiency.
So, Ghana can improve its B-READY significantly. It is possible!!!
In President Kufuor’s first term, the then Ministry of Public Sector Reform under the leadership of Paa Kwesi Nduom initiated client service units and client service charters for a number of MDAs. Unfortunately, that initiative was not deepened by successive governments and faded over time.
Service Quality should drive 24HE Public Services
Every MDA, MMDA and SOE that seeks to provide 24HE public services should have improved service quality to clients as its primary goal.
Service quality should cover the five general dimensions of Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, Empathy, and Appearance.
Reliability means performing the promised service dependably and accurately.
Responsiveness means delivering the service quickly, rapidly, promptly, immediately or instantly. It requires establishing service standards and timelines for responding to applications, emails, and returning phone calls for everyday and emergency responses.
Assurance means staff are experts of the service they are delivering. It requires that staff are highly skilled and abreast with their own rules and regulations and emerging trends in their domain. They also exude confidence.
Empathy means caring about clients during service delivery. It borders on how staff interact with their clients in tone of speech (warm and inviting, not cold and hostile) and body language (smiles, not frowns).
Appearance matters. The physical spaces for rendering services including washrooms should be comfortable and tidy. Similarly, staff should dress nicely and decently. Equipment should be in good working condition and presentable.
MDAs, MMDAs and SOEs should not put up a sharp appearance and fall short on reliability and responsiveness.
Parameters for 24HE Public Services
Every MDA, MMDA and SOE should consider four parameters to design and deliver 24HE public services.
First, the public service should be high in demand, or suffer from backlogs and delays.
Second, digital public services should be the norm.
Rwanda offers online public services across nine out of the ten topics in B-READY.
They include online platforms for company registration, issuing building authorizations, registering the transfer of property ownership, application for new commercial electricity connections, application for new commercial water connections, taxpayer services, filing of disputes, electronic public procurement portal, and electronic auctions.
Accordingly, Rwanda ranks seventh in public services and third in operational efficiency amongst the 50 developed and developing economies covered in B-READY.
Ghana should emulate the Rwanda example.
The efficiency and effectiveness of the GHANA.GOV platform should be assessed and a roadmap developed and implemented to promote it to the public, and also deliver high quality digital public services.
Digital public services are typically rendered 24 hours, 7 days a week including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
The digital literacy skills of citizens and residents should be developed to use digital public services. I will explain this in a subsequent article.
Third, there should be functional interoperability of digital public services.
There are multiple regulators in Ghana providing public services.
Some regulators have a functional mandate that applies to all economic sectors.
These include the Registrar of Companies and Department of Cooperatives for business registration and renewals; Ghana Revenue Authority for taxes; Ghana Standards Authority for development and maintenance of standards for products and services; Environmental Protection Agency for environment and climate change; Food and Drugs Authority for food and drugs safety; Department of Factories Inspectorate for occupational health and safety; Ghana National Fire Service for fire permits and inspection, and many others.
Other regulators have an economic sector mandate.
These include the Bank of Ghana for financial services; Securities and Exchange Commission for securities markets; National Pensions Regulatory Authority for pensions; National Petroleum Authority for downstream petroleum; Petroleum Commission for upstream petroleum; COCOBOD for cocoa; Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Division of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture for seeds, seedlings, fertilizer and agrochemicals; Tree Crops Development Authority for oil palm, cashew, shea, rubber, mango and coconut; Commission for Technical and Vocational Education Training for technical and vocational training; Ghana Tertiary Education Commission for tertiary education; Ghana Education Service for primary and secondary education; Ghana Tourism Authority for hotels, restaurants and tourist facilities; Ghana Maritime Authority for sea and lake transport; and many others.
Lastly, there are the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) whose mandate is geographic and limited to district boundaries.
MMDAs collect levies, issue business operating permits; issue building permits, inspect food establishments; manage and regulate transport terminals and public markets among others.
Citizens and businesses in every economic sector deal with multiple MDAs and MMDAs.
Accordingly, digital public service platforms should be designed to talk to each other to eliminate the duplicate submissions of the same information (e.g. business certificate, building permit, tax clearance certificate, social security clearance) to multiple MDAs and MMDAs.
It is vital that MDAs and MMDAs collaborate with each other and take advantage of rapid advances in technology including Artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver common and shared 24HE public services. They should also build the requisite expertise to manage the associated technological threats.
Fourth, the public service should be self-financing.
MDAs, MMDAs and SOEs should establish the business case for delivering 24HE public services.
This means users of the service should pay a service fee that is sufficient to cater for the required investments, develop digital, mobile and other service delivery channels; cover operating costs, and leave a financial surplus to cater for future capital replacements and service upgrades.
MDAs, MMDAs and SOEs have the option to finance the development and delivery of first-class public services through private-public-partnerships (PPPs) and loans from commercial banks.
These partnerships should be procured in an open, transparent and competitive manner to forestall underhand deals that enriches politicians, public officials and their business partners; cheats the taxpayer; and leads to state capture.
Any public service that cannot pay for itself is not sustainable.
The alternative is for it to be funded through a budget allocation from the Ministry of Finance drawn on the Consolidated Fund. This is a non-starter given the extremely difficult fiscal situation.
Part 9 of this article series will present an implementation strategy for 24HE Outcome 5, that is, informal sector economic actors transitioned to the formal sector. It will draw on specific pledges in the NDC 2024 Manifesto and contemporary data.
