Change work attitude to propel economy — Speaker
The lack of punctuality on the part of Ghanaians is derailing efforts at propelling the country's socio-economic development, the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, has observed.
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He has, therefore, urged Ghanaians to change their work attitude and be more punctual to cut down the waste of man-hours.
"I think we have been living a life of contradiction. We want to develop yet we don’t want to go by the rules of development; we won’t unless we change our ways,’’ he said.
The Speaker made the call when an advocacy group, Punctuality Ghana Foundation, paid a courtesy call on him in Parliament.
Swipe at workers
He took a swipe at workers constantly absenting themselves from work in the name of funerals, and those who linger about aimlessly during working hours but expect to be paid at the end of the month, describing them as malingerers.
This negative attitude, especially in the public sector he said, “has a negative effect on the country’s productivity.”
He called for stiffer punishment to be meted out to wrongdoers in society to ensure adherence to law and order.
“Let punishment flow to let people conform or perish,” he added.
Contradictions
Prof. Oquaye said the contradiction was that Ghanaians knew what to do to propel the country's march towards the path of development but did the contrary and still expected to see meaningful changes in society.
He cautioned against what he described as the ostrich behaviour of some citizens and emphasised that “if Ghanaians do not change their attitudes and continue in this current state of affairs of business as usual, the nation will not witness any meaningful development.”
He asked all Ghanaians to ask themselves one critical question as to whether they really wanted the country to develop and stressed that if indeed Ghana should develop, there was an urgent need for a paradigm shift towards a new way of doing things in the country.
“What we are doing now, we know we can’t develop, you know, he knows, she knows or can we? the Speaker queried.
Discipline
Prof. Oquaye said other countries had been able to develop as a result of discipline and a positive attitude to work.
The Speaker also expressed worry over what he called unnecessary cover- up for people who committed wrongdoings in society, saying, “We love wrongdoers by always finding ways to intervene after they offend the law, a situation which makes it difficult for the laws of the land to work.”
“We cover up for people unnecessarily, in fact we love wrongdoers because wrongdoers often have people who will always cover for them,” he said.
Punctuality foundation
The founder of the Punctuality Ghana Foundation, Mr Emmanuel Amarquaye, said the campaign was in response to the President's call for citizens to be time conscious.
He expressed worry about the many hours spent in traffic just to go to work during rush hours and suggested the need to consider flexible working periods to enhance service delivery at all time.
Mr Amarquaye expressed displeasure with the continuous halt in government business as a result of the transition from one government to the other, with its negative impact on productivity.
He proposed a situation where it is possible for service providers, such as the utility companies, to have flexible working hours in order to deliver a 24-hour service to the public without contesting for time in traffic.