Constitution Drafters To Blame For Last Minute Appointments – Oduro Osae
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A Local Governance Expert Dr Eric Oduro Osae has blamed drafters of the country’s constitution for giving the President so much power to appoint people even at the last minute of leaving office.
The outgoing President John Dramani Mahama has received backlash for making last minute appointments coupled with increment of allowances and signing of contracts few days to his handing over.
But speaking on Abusua FM’s Abusua Nkommo hosted by Kwame Adinkrah, Dr Osae said the President should not be blamed for having so much power vested in him by the Constitution.
The Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) indicated that President Mahama has not breached any law saying the timing was wrong.
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According to him, the Constitution should be amended especially the Presidential-transition Act to avoid future last minute appointments by governments.
‘The President has not breached any law in appointing the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) bosses, Joseph Akanjolenur Whittal and Josephine Nkrumah respectively, but the timing was wrong taking into consideration two weeks to his handing over of power to the President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, why now?’ he explained.
He consented that the President did want to be criticised for leaving the two positions vacant.
The Local Governance Expert opined that relevant vacant positions should be documented in the handing over notes for the incoming government to take over.
He cited that the Presidential-transition Act does not state that the outgoing government should be ‘punished’ for refusing to present hand over notes thirty days before elections.
He suggested that the loopholes in the Law should be checked to prevent future confusion between outgoing and incoming government transition teams.
Dr Osae believed the appointments and implementation of increment of allowances would create major problems for the incoming government.
‘Sometimes lets put a cut of point to some of these things, though its not illegal,’ he submitted.
