The Office of the Senior Presidential Advisor (OSPA) and the Public Sector Reform Secretariat (PSRS) have inaugurated a Technical Committee to spearhead the development of a strategy to pilot the One-Stop-Shop (OSS) initiative under the Public Sector Reform for Results Project (PSRRP) implementation in selected districts across Ghana.
The initiative, which forms part government’s commitment to enhancing the efficiency and accessibility of public service delivery aims to introduce 20 essential public services, including accessing driver’s licenses, birth certificates, land registrations, company registrations, and more, through a collaborative effort with the private sector.
The Director of General Administration at PSRS, Mrs Thelma Ohene-Asiamah, highlighted the global demand for basic public services and the growing expectation for their delivery on the principles of value for money and cost-effectiveness.
According to her, “The heightening expectation of citizens globally in respect of the provision of basic public services is fueling the urgent need for public sector institutions to explore new innovative and sustainable models for service delivery.”
In that regard, she noted, the OSSs are envisioned as service centers, both electronic and physical, providing citizens and businesses with consolidated access to various public and private sector services at a single location or single online process through one or more service delivery channels.
Mrs Ohene-Asiamah said that the initiative seeks to decentralize key public services, reduce transaction times, enhance citizen engagement through feedback mechanisms, deploy technology-based systems to improve service delivery, minimize transaction costs and bureaucratic hurdles, increase transparency and foster equal treatment of all citizens.
“The concept was based on key elements in the design and delivery of a customer-centric model, including speed, engagement, responsiveness, value, and integration. “One Stop Shop” is used broadly to denote many types of OSSs, including one-door or single-window services, community service centres, citizen service centres, information centres, service kiosks and e-government web portals among others,” she added.
The Senior Presidential Advisor, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who officiated the inauguration of the Technical Committee urged members to expedite the process and set clear timelines for the implementation of the innovative approach.
He emphasized the importance of making it convenient for citizens and the private sector to access public sector services in Ghana.
He stated that the Technical Committee would discuss the OSS Framework and Strategy, report to the Oversight Committee for the final strategic decision, and supervise the implementation process.
“The Committee is tasked with developing a comprehensive framework and strategy for the OSS initiative, covering various aspects such as identifying suitable models, integrating existing systems, establishing legal frameworks, fostering inter-agency collaborations, determining pilot phase services, technology requirements, financial modules, private sector collaboration arrangements, sustainability plans, training, public education, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms,” he noted.
Members constituting the Technical Committee are from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Office of Registrar of Companies (ORC), Ministry of Finance (MoF), Ministry of Communications and Digitalization (MoCD), National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Information Services Department (ISD), Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (MLGDRD), Passport Office (PO), PSRS, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) among others.
Patience Anaadem, ISD
