The founding president and CEO of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has proposed a radical governance reform model aimed at addressing Ghana’s entrenched public financial mismanagement.
Speaking at the National Economic Dialogue in Accra, he introduced the RESET Challenge—Revitalising the Economy through Stewardship & Ethical Transformation—a framework designed to promote transparency, accountability, and ethical leadership in public service.
“The current approach to governance in Ghana is a broken machine running on outdated controls and suffocating bureaucracy. We need a system that promotes stewardship rather than just tightens bureaucratic nooses,” Cudjoe declared.
He argued that Ghana’s political culture has created a cycle where public officials prioritize self-preservation over national interest, manipulating systems for personal gain.
Five Key Principles of the RESET Model:
- Ministers and Chief Directors will voluntarily sign onto a transparent governance framework outlining a clear sectoral vision.
- They will commit to radical transparency and open data policies to allow for public scrutiny.
- They will host bi-weekly town halls—both virtual and physical—where procurement, performance metrics, and policy decisions are openly discussed.
- Citizens who participate will be enrolled into a stakeholder group providing continuous feedback on governance.
- Every six months, public officials will be evaluated based on their performance and engagement.
Cudjoe emphasized that RESET aims to strengthen existing Public Financial Management (PFM) controls by making them more meaningful to citizens.
“This is not just another government oversight mechanism. It is designed to be powered by the moral imagination of our public officials—those who truly desire to leave a legacy of progress,” he said.
While acknowledging that traditional oversight mechanisms cannot be entirely discarded, he insisted that RESET would complement and enhance them.
“Naturally, this model will not replace formal audits and PFM controls. But our hope is that it will infuse them with new energy, making governance more human-centered rather than purely bureaucratic,” Cudjoe explained.
He warned that Ghana’s governance system must be built to withstand partisan and patronage pressures that often override national priorities.
IMANI had previously experimented with a public sector leadership award, but Cudjoe admitted that traditional recognition schemes failed to drive genuine accountability.
“That was too top-down. RESET, on the other hand, is designed to be an organic system where public officials hold themselves accountable,” he noted.
Ending his presentation, he urged policymakers and the public to engage in refining the RESET model.
“Join us in refining this idea or design your own even better stewardship model. But one thing is clear—Ghana cannot continue with business as usual. We must RESET governance if we are to secure the future of this nation,” he concluded.
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