Ken Ofori-Atta sacks 8 Finance Ministry officials

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has alleged that top officials at the Finance Ministry, have been replaced with workers of Data Bank.

The Minority Leader, said persons who worked with the Finance Minister, while he was at Data Bank, have been employed at the Finance Ministry.

Data Bank is owned by Ken Ofori-Atta, a cousin of President Akufo-Addo.

Speaking to journalists at the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Headquarters, the Tamale South Member of Parliament (MP) said the removal of public and civil servants, must end.

“Even at the Ministry of Finance, as many as eight civil service positions have been filled by officers who hitherto were working with the Minister of Finance at Data Bank and have been out on the payroll at the Ghana Revenue Authority. We will not accept the undue politicization of the Civil and Public Service of Ghana but even that is tolerable. We will not and we will resist in all full force and in fact we are calling on the development partners and donors who are concerned about our democracy and governance to call the President to order.”

Mr. Iddrisu’s claims come months after former President John Dramani Mahama, criticized the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) for what he described as frequent dismissals of public sector workers.

Mr. Mahama, indicated that the President set a bad precedent by dismissing these category of workers.

He had claimed that, although he decided to keep the public sector workers at their various positions when he came to power, the NPP, had dismissed all those workers, after taking over from them.

“When I came to power, I left most of these public sector workers but when this [NPP] government took over, they dismissed them, and this is a bad precedent for our governance because potentially government can change in every four years so if another government takes over, it means all those working in the public sector have to be dismissed for a new crop of employees to take over and this is bad for governance.”

In March, the Minority in Parliament, slammed government’s approach to the removal of some heads of government institutions a few days after the Akufo-Addo administration took over.

On the floor of Parliament, the MP for Wa West, Joseph Yileh Chireh, said the recent dismissals of some top executives was most undignified and contrary to due process.

“We should not create the impression that all these people do not qualify and should be hounded out. They were given less than 24 hours to handover. People should have been allowed to properly handover. If you suspect that they have committed offences, you should not just resort to dismissals. You must make sure that the right thing is done,” the MP argued.

The Minority, was also particularly very critical of President Akufo-Addo’s directive to the Administrator of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund, Kojo Fynn, to proceed on indefinite leave.