Mr. David Yaro, Chief Director of the Western Regional Coordinating Council, on Tuesday, called on civil and public servants to wake up from their slumber and try to give of their best for the advancement of the nation.
He made the call at the end of year awards night of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) at Takoradi.
Mr. Yaro said, "The days when we put in little and expect much, should be considered a thing of the past".
He said the President had indicated his government was going to hit the grounding running and "If the President is running, how can we the implementers of his policies afford to trot".
Mr.Yaro asked the CEPS as well as the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Immigration Service to try to exceed their revenue targets for 2009.
He said to do this successfully, the CEPS must purge itself of perceptions of corruption that the public had about the Service.
Mr. Yaro was happy that the management of CEPS had put in place anti-corruption measures within the service to minimize these tendencies.
He encouraged the public, as patriotic citizens, to volunteer information on smuggled goods, which he said, was a major source of revenue leakage. Mr. Yaro said the people could assist to realize national aspirations by living up to their civic and corporate responsibilities, exposing people who indulged in illegal water connections and reporting miscreants who stole electricity cables, among others.