A CLOSE AIDE of Dr. Spio Garbrah says the former Minister and current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has not deserted the NDC for the ruling NPP.
“Spio is still an NDC member, albeit a non active member because of his new international role”, noted Mr Kwaku Ampah, a friend of the former NDC Minister of Education.
Ampah was reacting to comments within some circles that Spio had switched camp following his recent praise of the Kufuor’s administration ICT policy on his recent visit to the country.
Reached earlier on the same issue during that visit, Dr Spio Garbrah would not answer the question on whether he was still a member of the NDC.
According to him, all international civil servants with international organisations such as the OAU, CTO, NEPAD, and the UN are by tradition and convention not permitted or encouraged to get involved in partisan political activities anywhere, including their home countries.
He said UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annan, for example, cannot support a political party in South Africa, Senegal, Ivory Coast or Ghana because that would violate the tradition, norm and convention that apply to such staff.
Spio, who is a former Ghanaian Ambassador to the US as well as a former top-level management staff of the African Development Bank (ADB), said the policy that debars international civil servants from engaging in partisan politics is meant to enable international civil servants maintain the interest of the organisations they serve, since governments are not permanent. “Governments come and go whilst the organisations they serve remain” he said.
