As we approach the elections, our would-be leaders come with all sorts of promises, schemes and philosophies of development. Now all these bright ideas must be brought to life in a social environment. Rules and regulations must be made to guide their evolution and progress. If we ignore the rules, nothing much would happen. Even corruption cannot be contained if we do not enforce the rules when corruption is uncovered. Debates about state and private enterprise and the like are conducted as if the mere institution of the system would bring in prosperity. But whatever system we adopt, we must work hard and abide by the rules and regulations established; otherwise, there would not be much progress. We make ourselves look ridiculous when we turn to a new system because the current one has failed simply because we do not apply the rules. A recent story will illustrate the point. We all know how bad our roads are and that any improvement in the road-worthiness of our roads is most welcome. Now roads and bridges are not made to carry any load. Therefore the rules and regulations stipulate the maximum weight allowed on roads. Checkpoints have been made to ensure compliance with the rules. In our story, the officials who should enforce compliance did not do their duty. What happened? We changed the system. We privatised the checkpoint operation! Let us recall the story in the Ghanaian Times of January 11, 2008. "The Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) has privatised its axle-load checkpoint on the Accra-Tema motorway and at Bogoso following the Times publication of irregularities recorded at the points. The 12 officials who were implicated in alleged bribery scandals at the two points, have since August last year, been recalled to the main office". So the officials who were implicated were sent to headquarters. And we know what normally happens. After lengthy tortuous enquiries the matter is forgotten or the culprits are transferred even to headquarters. At headquarters they are expected to assist to "monitor activities" at the check points "more closely". Meanwhile, we breathe a sigh of relief, we have privatised operations and therefore "born-again Ghanaians' would do the trick while we go to sleep. The same paper, on the same day reported that "service charters" had been signed with four agencies: "The Ministry of Public Sector Reforms has launched the third batch of the new charter aimed at ensuring effective and efficient service delivery, this time for four public service agencies. "The agencies are the Passport Office, the Births and Deaths Registry, the Rent Control Department and the Public Records and Archives Administrative Department. "The new charter launched by the President in October, last year, is a printed agreement between an organisation and the public through which trust and confidence in public service will be sustained. Its compliance is to be ensured by the sector ministry". We are informed that the aim is "to redeem the sinking image of public service providers and to empower the people in their pursuit to access public service". It seems that agencies which cannot be privatised are being "chartered". Simple privatisation will solve all the problems of state enterprises and so will signing charters free authority from ensuring that rules and regulations are enforced. I am afraid the public service, and the civil service especially, cannot function effectively if a body of clear rules and regulations are not applied. Such rules and regulations normally give the official reasonable security of tenure while efficient service is rigorously demanded of him or her. The Births and Deaths Registry can only "win the trust and confidence of the public" if one can record a birth or death without fuss in say, 10 minutes and obtain a birth or death certificate readily. And this relevant authority should insist that this is done. Those who would not perform the public duty for which they are paid should be shown the exit. It appears that a major part of the problem is the provision of adequate logistics. The Daily Graphic of July 11, 2008 reports that ''the Ministry of local Government, Rural Development and Environment is working hard to provide the Births and Deaths Registry with the needed logistics and personnel to attain the universal target for the registration of births and deaths". The report continued that the Senior Assistant Registrar had identified "absence of logistics to enhance monitoring and supervision" as a major problem. Therefore we should provide what is necessary and insist that the public gets its money's worth. If this is done "service charters" would not be that necessary. Those involved should work, satisfy the public or be reprimanded and sacked if necessary. It is believed that because of high oil prices and other prospects the budget for certain expenditures would be cut. When that happens we pay officials but do not give the wherewithal to work. We then blame the services for not delivering the goods and resort to "service charters" and other outwardly fine ideas which do not really help. It is important that we are not taken in by our own public relation pronouncements. We may assure the public so that the necessary calm is maintained. But if we must cut planned expenditures, we should face that fact squarely, make the necessary reductions in the public interest and come clean and clear with the people. For example, I try to follow events but I am not sure what all the furore about the Ghana Telecom sale is about. Is the sale designed to improve the telecommunications service or is it to sustain the Ghanaian economy at a critical period? The Daily Graphic of July 29, 2008 reported a distinguished Ghanaian economist as saying that "Ghana's economy needed about $130 million injection to stay healthy and that the $900 Million expected from the sale of 70 per cent Of GT shares to Vodafone could provide that critical support, strengthen the macroeconomy and control inflation." He stated that "as a result of the rise in the price of crude oil, proceeds from cocoa were not enough to pay for the oil which is now sold at $130 a barrel". He warned that any attempt to reverse the decision about GT would greatly affect the budget and consequently weaken the economy. It would mean that the government could not disburse budget allocations to important sectors of the economy. This is serious and we should discuss the matter dispassionately. The government should ensure that we do not trivialise the issue by engaging discussions to score debating points. It should come clean and clear with the facts. I am not an economist but the question which disturbs my lay mind is this. "If the economic and budgetary situation remains the same next year, what do we sell? I believe what we should do is to adopt policies to produce more and sell more while we reduce our consumption of crude oil. This would demand clear cut measures to be administered by an efficient civil and public service working with confidence within the rule of law and thoughtfully laid down procedures. Credit: Daily Graphic/K.B. Asante