Stop petty squabbles at your Missions – Akufo-Addo to Ghana’s Heads of Mission

President Akufo-Addo has made an instructive appeal to all Heads of Ghana Missions to do all within their power to eliminate little misunderstandings and squabbles at their various missions which are threatening the peace and work of the missions abroad.

In his address at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Conference of Heads of Ghana Missions at the Jubilee House on the theme:”Leveraging Ghana’s Foreign Policy For National Development ” President Akufo-Addo observed that “at your respective swearing-in ceremonies, I urged you especially the political appointees to strive to develop cordial working relations with the professional foreign staff officers you will find at your duty post” the President said.

He added that “It has, however, come to my attention that in some of the missions, the exact opposite of my appeal is being adhered to. There are several reports of petty squabbles, turf wars, outright confrontations, complete breakdown of relations between some heads of Missions and their respective foreign service officers. This situation is completely unacceptable and it is proving detrimental to the smooth running of our missions and occasionally unnecessary additional cost” the President said.

President Akufo-Addo registered his displeasure at the development indicating that in as much as the heads of missions exercise oversight responsibility over the missions, “the rights of your staff must be fully respected particularly as they are permanent employees of the Civil Service”.

Rehabilitation of Foreign Mission Buildings

In his address, President Akufo-Addo announced that the Foreign Ministry has secured some 50 Million Dollars loan facility which will be disbursed in 2019 to several of the missions abroad to rehabilitate their respective mission buildings that have all rundown.

“The Minister has assured me that the loan will be vigorously disbursed and employed in this new year of 2019. Heads of Missions are expected to compile strictly with the foreign service regulations and accounting instructions and all the other legal instruments that relate to public financial management” the President said.

Foreign Minister

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, in her opening statement, welcomed all the Ambassadors to Ghana and wished them a pleasant stock-taking conference. She emphasized that it is her expectation that at the end of the conference, all the heads of missions will be properly aligned to the foreign policy strategy of government in order to properly situate their work at their various duty post in order to attract the requisite investments to Ghana.

Request by Ambassadors

Ghana’s Ambassador to Canada, Ayikoi Otoo, in his vote of thanks at the ceremony, beseeched the President to consider increasing the number of dependants from two to three and to give Heads of Ghana Missions the clearance to import at least one vehicle to Ghana duty-free.

Heads of Foreign Missions Aboard

All Ghanaian Ambassadors and Heads of Missions abroad are in the country for their annual conference from the 17th to the 20th of December, 2018. Their conference begun with a meeting with the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, at the Jubilee House today. The Ambassadors have subsequently pitched tents at the Peduase Valley Resort for the rest of their deliberations.