Former President John Dramani Mahama has criticized the governing New Patriotic Party for what he describes as frequent dismissals of public sector workers.
Mr. Mahama believes the President is setting a bad precedent by dismissing these category of workers.
Speaking at the NDC’s 25th Anniversary rally held at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra region, the former President claimed that, although he decided to keep the public sector workers at their various positions when he came to power , the NPP has dismissed all such workers after taking over from them.
“When I came to power, I left most of these public sector workers; but when this [NPP] government took over, they dismissed them, and this is a bad precedence for our governance because potentially governance can change in every four years so if another government takes over , it means all those working in the public sector have to be dismissed for a new crop of employees to take over and this is bad for governance.”
The former President also touched on recent attacks believed to have been orchestrated by vigilante groups affiliated with the NPP, saying the problem if not addressed “will destroy the country.”
In March, the Minority in Parliament slammed government’s approach to the removal of some heads of government institutions a few days before the Akufo-Addo administration took over.
On the floor of Parliament, the MP for Wa West, Joseph Yileh Chireh, said the recent dismissals of some top executives is most undignified and contrary to due process.
“We should not create the impression that all these people do not qualify and should be hounded out. They were given less than 24 hours to handover. People should have been allowed to properly handover. If you suspect that they have committed offences, you should not just resort to dismissals. You must make sure that the right thing is done.”
The Minority was also particularly very critical of President Akufo-Addo’s directive to the Administrator of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund, Kojo Fynn, to proceed on indefinite leave.
The office of the Administrator of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund is categorized under Article 70 of the Constitution and is supposed to enjoy secure tenure.
The appointments of all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) were also revoked days after the President was sworn into office, with some suggesting that they were fired too early.
Aside from this, the National Service Scheme (NSS), also revoked the appointment of persons who were employed at the Secretariat towards the end of the Mahama Administration in December 2016.
Former President Mahama also expressed dissatisfaction with the Attorney General’s decision to free the eight Delta Force members who were arrested for storming the Kumasi Circuit Court and freeing some of their members who were standing trial.
Citing the Montie three case as an example, the President said the erstwhile National Democratic Congress government allowed the law to work when it was faced with a similar situation.
“There are issues that this government has to focus on addressing and one of those is political vigilantism. We all witnessed what happened when the Montie three case came up. We did not decide to cover up or protect anyone or interfere. We allowed the laws to work. They went to court, afterwards they were jailed for more than a month until I exercised my powers as a President to call for their release.”
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
