The First Vice Chair of the outgoing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Madam Anita Disoso has slammed the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for raising an alarm over the recruitment and award of contracts to individuals by government.
Former finance minister, Osafo Marfo in the erstwhile Kufour administration and representative on the transitional team for president-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo has raised an alarm that government was awarding last minute contracts and recruiting people into service institutions nationwide.
“We have heard of ongoing recruitment into the security services now which we hope is not true. We have heard of the conversion of temporary staff of political assistants and some of the staff we took on into permanent public servants.”
“We have heard of the awarding of new contracts after the election results were announced on December 9. We’ve heard of the procurement of sales and national assets also after the results,” the former finance Minister added. He said, “We need to be cautious, we need to be transparent, we need to be candid and we need to be factual. We are therefore appealing to our colleagues that within this period, if there is anything that needs to be done, consultation needs to be brought on board.”
However, Madam Anita Disoso has lambasted the NPP stating that government programs cannot grant to a halt because the NPP has won an election. She quizzed whether the NPP were the ones that constructed the various hospitals and schools for them to come and recruit staff into them. She said, "we [NDC] constructed these facilities and so we will recruit staff to work in them before the NPP takes over office."
Speaking in an interview with Rainbow Radio’s Kwame Tutu, Madam Anita Disoso said, "The EC declared you winners of the election, we did not complain… But you are now crying over the recruitment of staff into various service sectors of the country. Why are you complaining? Have you constructed any school for you to come and recruit teachers into them? Have you constructed any hospital for you to come and recruit nurses into them? They should shut up. They did the same thing to us when they were leaving office in 2008. They signed the single spine pay policy before leaving office. Should we wait for them to come and recruit staff into our various projects? They should wait until 7, January, 2017 to take over and stop complaining."
Anita Disoso emphasized that President Mahama was next to Nkrumah regarding projects and infrastructure but was overthrown through the ballot just like Ghana’s first president.
When asked why the party has waited until elections are over before recruiting people she said, the recruitment went through processes hence the NPP have no basis to raise any false alarm. On the recruitment into the security services she said, the recruitment were done before the election. On the issue of contracts, she indicated that they went through various processes before approval.
She quizzed, "should Ghana come to a halt because Nana Addo has won an election? It is impossible. President Mahama is still the President and until 7, January, 2017, he cannot be questioned for discharging his duties as the leader of the country."
Source: rainbowradioonline
Financial Analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford, has said the Vice President, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, failed the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its Presidential Candidate, John Mahama in the just ended election.
“To a large extent, I think Kwesi Amissah-Arthur is to blame for the NDC losing this election,” Mr. Casely-Hayford opined on The Big Issue.
The December 7 presidential poll saw the worst defeat recorded by a sitting President in Ghana’s election history.
President Mahama became the first incumbent to lose a re-election bid after a first term, as the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo, won 53.85% of the total valid votes cast, against his 44.40%.
Mr. Casely-Hayford indicated that the Veep was brought into the party in 2012 “as someone who was going to be able to sort out the financial and economic problems” and also as a counter to the NPP’s Running Mate and economist, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
The past election cycle saw Dr. Bawumia present a bleak assessment of Ghana’s economy, during a lecture, where he dared the NDC’s Mr. Amissah-Arthur to answer his 170 questions on the state of the economy.
But Mr. Amissah-Arthur largely avoided the topic and said two days to the elections that, anyone asking 170 questions was not serious and that most of the questions put forward by Dr. Bawumia were mere statements of fact.
Mr. Casely-Hayford maintained that the Vice President was expected to bring some sanity into the NDC’s economic policies and developments especially after the death of a senior adviser to the President and former Chair of the National Development Planning Commission, Paul Victor Obeng.
But Mr. Amissah Arthur was never able to step forward to assume that mantle after PV Obeng’s death in 2014, given the crucial role he played with the National Economic Forum at Senchi, he stated.
“Therefore [Finance Minsiter] Terkper became the person who was driving economic change and economic stability to the extent that Kwesi Amissah Arthur never featured strongly, even though he was one of the persons who had far more experience than anybody else in the party at the time,” Mr. Casely-Hayford noted.
“This ultimately let down the thrust of any financial change in the party and in government,” according to Mr. Hayford, who added that “the weakest part of the NDC was the economics issue, and they were never able to get somebody who could bring the confidence that it would change in the future.”
Source: Citifmonline.com
No comments:
Post a Comment