Accra: Public policy think tank, CUTS International, has called on the Government and public institutions to retool and reset their approach to customer service delivery to meet the evolving needs of citizens and businesses.
According to Ghana News Agency, the organisation observed that while private sector entities had made significant strides in improving client relations, many public sector agencies continued to lag behind, undermining public trust and national productivity.
"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," it said.
A statement signed and issued by Mr. Appiah Kusi Adomako, West Africa Director, CUTS International, to mark this year's Customer Service Week celebration, lamented several systemic failures that continued to undermine customer service within Ghana's public sector.
A recent survey on customer service in Ghana ranked the public sector as the worst in customer service compared to the private sector, citing long response times, lack of feedback mechanisms, and bureaucratic red tape, which continued to frustrate citizens and investors alike.
The research firm said the situation not only eroded confidence in public institutions but also hampered the government's own digital transformation and service delivery goals, explaining that while the country had made notable investments in public sector reforms and digital initiatives, they had 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," it noted.
"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 digitisation and reflects weak institutional discipline."
Additionally, CUTS International highlighted the informal handling of official correspondence, where public officers frequently requested that citizens send documents to their personal email accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook, a practice it noted compromised professionalism and data security.
It 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.
"These deficiencies collectively send a wrong message to the public and development partners," the organisation said, adding that, "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."
To improve that, CUTS International urged ministries, departments, and agencies to embark on what it called a "Public Sector Service Reset" to reorient attitudes, systems, and accountability frameworks to ensure excellence.
That, the statement said, should focus on three key areas: capacity building, technology adoption and integration, and accountability and feedback loops.
It called on the government to provide policy leadership and enforce accountability across ministries, departments, and agencies to ensure that service delivery was prioritised as part of the performance evaluation of chief directors and heads of agencies.
"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," the statement added.
It also called on public servants to reflect on the role they played in shaping citizens' perceptions about government.
CUTS International is a research and public policy think tank working in the areas of consumer protection and consumer education, competition policy and law, trade and development, economic and healthcare policy among others.
