Politicians should not manage social protection policies - Osei-Bimpeh

Country Director of SEND Ghana, Dr George Osei-Bimpeh has warned against the culture of allowing politicians to be placed at the forefront of managing social intervention policies.

His comment comes on the back of recent happenings at the ministry of gender where the minister of gender after assuming her portfolio, signed a dismissal letter to the coordinator of the national school feeding program.

Speaking in an interview with Alfred Ocansey on the 3FMSunrise Morning show, Dr. Osei-Bimpeh said “if we allow extreme partisanship to eat into the very framework that is supposed to alleviate deprivation, we shall be faced with lots of confusion at the helms of affairs at the ministry which will, in the long run, affect effective implementation of the programs”.

He proffered that “I do not think that going forward, social protection should be managed by politicians, of course, and the leadership in terms of the minister should be there for the minister to do the supervision, but let’s allow the technocrats to do the recruitment of the caterers, use a well define set of category that will help recruit the right persons and also create jobs for the newly trained caterers”.

Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Sarah Adwoa Safo in a letter dated May 18, 2021, terminated the appointment of Mrs Gertrude Quashigah as the National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme.

Her dismissal took immediate effect on the same day the letter was issued however the decision to sack the National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, was reversed in another letter signed by the minister.

Dr. George Osei- Bimpeh is however of the view that making such appointments from the office of the president is pointless and that the appointing power should be given to the minister who will be held accountable for every activity at the ministry.