Public officials must answer the media - Badu-Akosa

Journalists should expose public sector workers who fail to answer queries on media platforms and fail to respond when contacted for information, according to a prominent member of the CPP.

Professor Agyemang Badu-Akosa, the former Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and a member of the Convention People's Party (CPP), was responding to President Mahama’s call on radio morning show hosts to avoid laziness and the excessive interest in politics. Professor Akosa also expressed disgust at public officials who cannot face the media when contacted to volunteer information on a subject.


He expressed disappointment in government appointees who run away from the media spotlight, explaining that; “you have been appointed, you have a daily business to understand the work that you do. And if there are difficulties, then it is you who should come and share that knowledge; those issues".


According to him, once a person is appointed to head a public office, it is mandatory for him or her to reveal failures of the agency to the media without fear or intimidation.


Following the President’s call, Professor Akosa noted that just as media practitioners are tasked to use their platforms for developmental projects, public servants should also be liberal to voice their activities and the challenges in the public sector.


He disclosed that some public heads pursue their masters degree on the ticket of government and return to work as consultants for the government without utilising their knowledge base to the benefit of the nation.

“I think that is wrong. As a public servant, yours is to interface between the work that you do and the general public. And you should be there articulating the concerns and talking about where management is. If there are management issues, talk about it and so on, and so forth. But you as an individual who holds a certain position should be ready to come on air,” he said.


“After all, how will you justify the job that you have. The only way that Ghanaians will know that [my God] we’ve got a Director General who is articulate, who is knowledgeable; it’s when you come on television programmes. When you come on radio programmes and speak sense.”


He questioned: “How can you sit in a closet and be Director General or be Director of something? I mean what is it?


“I find it absolutely unacceptable that anybody who’s been appointed into a certain level, particularly if you take the public service [Director and above]; who cannot answer queries about issues pertaining to his area of work. Journalists should be able to say it…Let people put people on the spot. After all, what are they paid for?”


He was however optimistic that if journalists “take a development agenda and we take a developmental attitude, a lot of them (public servants) will have no choice but to respond".