Attorney-General, Gloria Akuffo, says the Administrator General’s claim that lack of resources impedes its responsibility of ensuring a smooth transition is overstated.
Gloria Akuffo believes the Administrator General’s office is not the only institution dealing with the lack of adequate resources, rejecting suggestions that non-availability of funds caused delays in the 2017 transition period.
“While I will not deny the fact that like many institutions in the country, we never have enough resources to deliver our mandate, it will not be peculiar to the Administrator General. I do support the view that it [Administrator General’s Office] should be better resourced if it has to discharge its responsibility but I think its constraints has been overstated,” said Attorney-General.
The Attorney General was speaking at an event organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to review the implementation of the Transition Act.
Joy News’ Latif Iddrisu, who was at the IEA event reports that the Attorney General recalled that during the 2017 transition period, the Administrator General, David Yaro, had said that he had already received the handing-over notes from the outgoing National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, however, that was not the case.
”When it was time for the handing-over notes to be handed over, he [David Yaro] was sitting in the well with the team,” the Attorney-General reiterated.
The Attorney-General said it was the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, and not the Administrator General, who gave reasons for why the notes were not ready,
“Eventually, when the notes came they came in tranches. The Administrator General again was sitting in the well, and he was invited to come and pose for the cameras to hand over the notes. What are we being told?” she quizzed.
David Yaro had said in the lead-up to the 2017 transition process that brought the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to power that his outfit may not be able to perform its constitutional mandate of ensuring a smooth transition due to the lack of resources.
Section 9.1 of the Presidential Transition Act requires the Administrator General to prepare a natural register covering all national lands and any other land vested in the president by the Constitution.
Mr Yaro had said a plan to acquire a computerised land management software for the compilation, update and storage of data on government properties like vehicles, lands, buildings etc. was threatened by non-availability of funds.
The 2017 transition was rocked by many controversies as both the NDC and the NPP disagreed over records of state assets, particularly state vehicles.
At one point the Acting General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, had claimed that the handing over notes made available to the incoming government had been “doctored”.
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