Parliament of Ghana sued

Parliament was yesterday served with a writ seeking to place an injunction on its attempt to recruit a new Director of Development.

The writ was filed by 1st Law Chambers on behalf of Kofi Safo-Duodu, who has held the position for many years until he was purportedly demoted by former Speaker of Parliament Ebenezer Begyina Sakyi Hughes.

The office of the Clerk to Parliament was served with the writ yesterday afternoon, setting the stage for a legal showdown.

The Parliamentary Service Board is recruiting a new Director of Development, having placed advertisement in the newspapers.

This decision to sidestep Mr Safo-Duodu is brewing tension in Parliament because the plaintiff has been the substantive Director of Development for many years.

Critics say the attempt to displace him is a wrong move because his demotion by the current Board is bizarre.

Parliament this week placed an advertisement in some newspapers seeking to invite applications from suitably qualified persons to apply for the post of Director of Development.

Among the qualifications required for the post is a postgraduate degree in architectural design, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering or any related discipline with a minimum of 10 years working experience.

Among the qualifications also is the requirement that applicants must be members of an accredited professional institution and must have excellent managerial skills and be computer literate.

According to some aggrieved directors and management members, if this is allowed to go on, it would amount to lowering of standards because their colleague, Mr Duodu, has a better and higher qualification than what is being asked for by the Board.

They told the media that what is happening is a clear case of witch-hunting, details of which they are privy to, and urged the Board to reconsider its decision in respect of the Director of Development.

They alleged that some persons in higher positions in the service are pushing the agenda because Mr Duodu has refused to succumb to their pressures to do things in their favour.

They said they are aware of the numerous traps set for their colleague, which have all backfired and that those detractors, seeing that Mr Duodu is still on top of his job, have resorted to the use of the Board to get him out of his post for what they term as unjustifiable reasons.

They stated that if this illegality is allowed to succeed, then no staff of the service is safe because that would pave the way for persons who cannot stand others to perpetrate falsehood and get them booted out of their posts through the Board.

According to the angry directors and management staff, Mr Duodu has suffered victimisation for far too long for reasons they cannot understand and wish he could be left alone to do his work.

The angry parliamentary service staff also disclosed that their colleague, Mr Robertson, acting Director of Audit, is also facing a similar humiliation as the position of the Director of Audit, for which he has acted for over eight years, has now been advertised.

They are of the view that their colleague, who has held the fort all these years without creating problems for the service, should have been confirmed as the substantive Director of Audit after being taken through the process, and not be treated the way the Board is seeking to do by advertising that the position is vacant.

The angry directors and management staff of the Parliamentary Service therefore cautioned the Board to be circumspect in taking such decisions, because they have the tendency of lowering morale of other staff members, indicating that “what is going on clearly shows what could possibly befall any of us one day,” which they said could go a long way to affect their work output, because a nation that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for.