News:
April 25, 2017
Former Minister of Health in the erstwhile John Evans Atta Mills’s administration, Joseph Yieleh Chireh has bemoaned the coup mentality approach by the Akufo-Addo’s government in sacking Chief Executive Officers of Public Institutions and has advice that it must end.
He said, we ought to improve on whatever went wrong with the transition of 2001 and 2009 that is why concern Ghanaians and civil society push for a transitional Act to govern how our transition is done in an orderly manner.
The MP, who was speaking in an interview with Ghanamps.com further noted that, Ghana received international commendation for ensuring smooth handover of power from the John Dramani Mahama administration to the now governing Akufo Addo’s government.
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Lingering in the minds of people is this coup mentality, your party was in power, now our party is in power leave immediately for another person to take over is not good for Ghana, “we must make sure that Chief Executive Officers of Public Agencies and Cooperation’s properly hand over to their successors after proper procedures have been followed”, he added.
As President, if you think these Chief Executive Officers may take major decisions you will not like, direct that they hold on to such decisions. When we finish approving the Presidents Ministers as they have taken their respective position they will be in better positon to advice the President as to who to retain and disapprove the Wa West legislator remarked.
How can we encourage and attract the best expertise and qualify persons to come and take over our Public Institutions, ‘within weeks, after one party loses an election you are asking heads of Public cooperation’s and agencies to proceed on leave and appointing others in acting capacity. The period given for handing over is so ridiculous it creates the impression that something is going on wrong, Joseph Yieleh Chireh said.
According to the former Health Ministers, in 2009 people criticize late President Professor Mills for appointing acting Inspector General of Police(IGP) and said it was unconstitutional how on earth in 2017 we have had acting IGP. For the security agencies some of these positions are mention in the Constitution, the person knowns he may no longer be in that position, you must give him that dignity haven serve his Country sufficient time to hand over and for a smooth transition. Again the President himself is going against the rule of law, for us to continue to improve on transfer of power, with the security agencies you cannot just say because your contact has ended everybody is going.
President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government has to build sufficient evidence against Chief Executives Officers (CEO’s) of Public Institutions who make errors, they should be taken through the process, and nobody is saying he does not have the right to appoint heads of these Institutions. “Immediately you say proceed on leave, you are fueling the suspicion that those heads of these Public Institutions are looting and doing things they should not have done”, he emphasis .
He added that, observing things that went wrong during the transitional periods, in 2016 the Presidential Transition Act was amended to correct the errors, hence with these approach of rampant proceed of weeks after a new government takes power we need to amend our Presidential transition Act and make it a law how CEO’s of Public Institutions exit office.
“The New Patriotic Party (NPP) boost of being a rule of law party, they should follow the rule of law and should engage themselves in this illegal act. When question about this act they tell you, you should accept it because the circumstance demand that what circumstance? I do not see any circumstance civility is the way to go. If we have a state of emergency, we should be told and it should be declared but the speed with which things are being done is worrisome”, he said.
He further said if that be the case then we should put in the Ghanaian Constitution that, the day you lose an election your mandate ends. Nobody is preventing the current government from reviewing decisions taken from Nkrumah’s era till date if there is a fast way of putting the Council of State together let us do it so that President Nana Akufo-Addo can consult them as stipulated in the Constitution of Ghana.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com