Thirty Civil Servants have been sacked on the orders of the transition team set up by President John Evans Atta Mills. The dismissed civil servants were A5 Foreign Service officers at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who had received their appointment letters and had been officially sworn into office.
Ministry sources said the Mills' Transition Team Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs had expressed doubts about the political affiliation of the said civil servants and thus directed that their appointments be terminated with immediate effect. Indeed the dismissal letters were copied and specifically attentioned to Dr. Tony Aidoo, Chairman of the Government Transition Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The sacked civil servants, as part of the admission requirements, were made to write an entrance examination in May 2007 after which they were interviewed for the positions in February 2008. They eventually received their official appointment letters on December 1, 2008. After being sworn into office on January 5 this year, they received a letter last Friday, January 9 which stated that the Transition Team had directed that their appointments be withdrawn.
The latest development added to the murky situation that had characterized the entire transitional process. Last Friday scores of ex-government appointees and private individuals were dispossessed of their vehicles on the mere suspicion that they (vehicles) belonged to the State. The situation is creating bad blood between the new government and its predecessor.
Hannah Tetteh, spokesperson for the Mills Transition Team, did not pick her phone when Daily Guide called her to get an explanation on why the team directed that the said civil servants be sacked. Daily Guide then left a voice message and also sent an SMS text message to Madam Tetteh but had not received a reply as at the time of going to press.
