The Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo has charged Emerging Public Leaders (EPL) Ghana fellows not to be absorbed into the rot at the country’s civil service.
Speaking at the launch of the EPL Ghana Fellowship Program on Tuesday, he said the fellows have the responsibility to bring change to the civil service.
Even though he admitted that would not come easy, he urged the fellows to always stand for what is right.
“You are agents of change, what you need to make you a good leader is to do what is right. You shouldn’t allow the rot to overpower you because they are in the majority. It isn’t always that the majority is right,” he told the fellows.
Launched in 2018, Emerging Public Leaders of Ghana (EPL Ghana) is a two-year fellowship with a vision to have the next generation of civil servants committed to realizing the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
It is aimed at recruiting and developing young graduates with transferable leadership skills to effect change into the public sector and beyond.
EPL Ghana provides an opportunity for top-performing graduates and young professionals to join the public service in a prestigious role that includes monthly professional training, robust supervision and mentoring, and ongoing career support and development.
Osafo Maafo, however, appealed to the Office of the Head of Civil Service and EPL Ghana to place quite a number of fellows into the Ministries of Health and Education, which he said were the two ministries with the highest number of civil servants.
He also appealed for some to be posted to the regions to bring the needed changes there as well.
In September 2018, twenty fellows of the program were placed across nine ministries in Ghana. Head of the Civil Service, Nana Kwesi Agyekum Dwamena speaking at the program, praised the performance of the first batch, describing it as “outstanding”.