Friday, 14th February, 2025
Hon Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin
Effutu
Mr Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to make this Statement on the aftermath of the directive of the Chief of Staff to state institutions regarding the employment of civil servants and public servants post 7th December, 2024. Mr Speaker, in a letter dated 10th February, 2025, with reference SCR/DA85/B5/01/A.
“OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT Revocation of Appointment and Recruitment Made After 7th December 2024
Consistent with Government pronouncement in relation to near end of tenure appointments and recruitment, I wish to bring to your attention that all appointment and recruitment made in the Public Services of Ghana after 7 th December, 2024 are not in compliance with established good governance practices and principles. Accordingly, all Heads of Government Institutions are hereby requested to take the necessary steps to annul any such appointments or recruitment and submit a comprehensive report on the actions taken to this Office by 17th February, 2025.
Your cooperation in this matter is highly appreciated.” Signed Hon Julius Debrah Chief of Staff
ALL HEADS OF GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS”
Mr Speaker, pursuant to this, state institutions have been issuing termination letters and revoking appointments, and it is causing a lot of trauma to the youth of the country who have been employed by the state. I have seen letters from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Ghana Water Limited, Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), and, of particular concern, the Ghana Health Service (GHS). Health professionals who were recruited have been given letters to go home. Teachers who were recruited have been given letters to go home.
Mr Speaker, recruitment is not an event; it is a process. It is not just a day that an institution would get up, call somebody and give a letter. In our own Parliament, recruitment started as far back as June, July and August. It is only around January that some people receive their appointment letters. They went through interview, did aptitude tests and had to pass medicals. So, knowing Hon Julius Debrah, perhaps, he meant well, and this is somebody I respect.
Mr Speaker, I do not think that the intendment of this letter was for state institutions to dismiss or revoke appointments. I believe that, perhaps, some clarity would have to be given. If he says that, in the interest of good governance practices, all appointments after 7 th December be revoked, is it the argument that even where the process had started and the time that they were given their letter is post-7 th December, they should lose their job?
Mr Speaker, I am guided by history. In 2017, particularly 26th May, 2017, at 7.12 p.m., former President John Dramani Mahama, as he then was, tweeted: “Bad precedent for our governance. Mass sacking of workers by the NPP govt unacceptable”. He goes further, at 7.13 p.m., “These workers are all citizens and like all Ghanaians have rights, which must be protected. #OneGhana #OnePeople.”
Mr Speaker, pursuant to this, there were serious behind-the-scenes discussions, and although government had intended to scrutinise this recruitment, no Ghanaian worker was sent home. I know about the Economic and Organised Crime (EOCO). There were recruitments at the EOCO and not a single one of them was sent home, and I say this on authority. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Health Insurance, Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and a lot of government agencies had done recruitment, and the explanation was that the process started before 7 th December, and H. E. John Dramani Mahama raised this matter.
Mr Speaker, I remember that, for recruitment into the Ghana Immigration Service, the Ghanaian youth went into training after 7th December. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was the one who presided over the parade for the graduation in March. The records are there; let us be very careful as a nation. The goodwill our friends have must not erode rather too early or too soon.
Mr Speaker, to conclude, I know Mr Julius Debrah; he is a private sector person. He is a businessman who knows that when somebody is employed, it adds value to the economy. So, I do not think he had intended that people who have gone through aptitude tests and interviews should be sent home, but it is all over the place that our countrymen and women and our youth are being sent home.
They went to office they were asked to come home with these letters. Where do they find food to eat? How do they feed their families? How do they feed themselves? What is going to be their future on the strength of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama's tweets of May 2017? I would want to adopt these words as though they were mine. These are very veritable words that he used to crave the indulgence of the Government at the time to get back to ensure that our people did not lose jobs. And I repeat it —
"These workers are all citizens of Ghana and like all Ghanaians have rights which must be protected. #One Ghana #One people.”
Hon Ayariga Mahama
Bawku Central
Mr Speaker, like I keep saying, Parliament is a space where we can make Statements and draw attention to important public matters. But Mr Speaker, let us also be even and balanced when we view matters in this House. I served as a member of the transition team and I recall that, during that period, there was a mad rush to employ people even after a party had lost an election and was on its way out after December 7. We saw Ministers in a hurry to have people interviewed and taken through the processes so that they could be officially served with employment letters. At the transition team meetings, joint meetings, we raised issues. We told our counterparts who are outgoing Ministers that that practice must stop because a number of issues are implicated.
One, we all know that we must have fiscal space before we take decisions to employ people. They were living and we are coming in. We have not told them that the public money that is available, we want to commit it to paying workers. So, they cannot clog the fiscal space and leave us with problems that we cannot deal with. So, we pleaded with them to hold on with the recruitments and at the meetings they told us that so long as they had gotten financial clearance during the year, they will proceed with the recruitments. And we said that is wrong. Once they have not done the recruitments, they should hold on; when we come in, we would assess the situation and see whether we have fiscal space to do recruitments or not. But they insisted on recruiting and insisted that so long as they were in office until January 7th, they were the validly established Government of the Republic of Ghana and they will do whatever pleases them and so they were going to recruit.
I was in the meetings and minutes of the meetings exist. I can point to specific outgoing Ministers who made those statements. So, if they engage in such recklessness knowing that they were leaving office, and they decided to load the public sector with workers that would make it difficult for the incoming Government, what do they expect?
Mr Speaker, I will not — I made those statements at the transition team meetings and I am repeating those statements here that it is reckless — [Interruption]— for them to know that they are leaving office but they decide to load the public sector with workers so that the incoming Government will come and inherit such workers and they will be struggling with how to pay them.
Mr Speaker, I chaired about eight Ministries during the transitions. I saw an agency — I would not mention the name but if they push me, I would mention the name. When we were leaving office in January 2017, that agency had about 120 workers with a certain asset to manage. During the transition team meeting, we asked them how many workers were in that agency. Mr Speaker, there were over 1,000 workers —
Mr Speaker, we asked them; have you added additional assets for them to manage? No.
So assets that we could use 110 workers to manage, the New Patriotic Party came and have loaded that same organisation with over 1,000 workers. It is not a question of whether or not they are not Ghanaians. It is about the proper management of the state. That is why the NDC as a party realised that this country should not be run with over 180 Ministers. That is why we have reduced the number of Ministers to 60. Because we want this country to be properly managed with the labour force that is needed to manage it.
So, if at the time we were cautioning them during the transition to be circumspect with their recruitment exercise, and they said they would not do it, what makes them think today, we will allow those recruitments to stay? I think that what the Chief of Staff has done is proper; it is consistent with good governance and we will review the recruitments that took place and we would reverse them as indicated.
I was in this House when the Minister for the Interior came and said he was going to recruit people into the security agencies. During the transition meetings, we cautioned him not to proceed with the recruitment. We said even if they have to recruit, they should go through proper advertisements and give every young person an opportunity.
Mr Speaker, if we go and interrogate a lot of the recruitments that took place, we would realise clearly that those recruitments amounted to abuse of discretion. There were no proper advertisements. People sat down and then just agreed among themselves, brought together family members, brought together foot soldiers and then they went and recruited them. That was what happened.
How many did they advertise? How many did they give opportunity to every Ghanaian to in order to apply and be taken through the proper processes? Mr Speaker, we knew what happened in this country and that is why Ghanaians voted overwhelmingly for the NDC. It is because what happened was wrong and Ghanaians expect us to correct what is wrong — What was wrong yesterday is wrong today but what they did yesterday which was wrong must be corrected today. We cannot allow it to stand. So, what the Chief of Staff has said which is that we should reverse what has happened, we on this Side of the House stand by it — We will push it and make sure that fairness exists in the public sector.
When it comes to recruitment under our Government, I want to assure him that we will also ensure that there is fairness and equity and that we are evenhanded in doing whatever we do. That every young Ghanaian is given a fair opportunity; an opportunity that they were not given in the past. We will give every young Ghanaian the opportunity. Because, as we promised, we are resetting this country and the resetting begins now.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much
Hon Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin
Effutu
Mr Speaker, I could not have risen on a point of order against the Majority Leader when he was in the dispatch box. I have always held the view that the dispatch box is a unique place, so you cannot rise on a point of order.
Mr Speaker, I think that the Majority Leader has been an advocate for measured language. I raised this matter in good faith. We are not to repeat a vicious cycle in our country. The point is that if he uses the word recklessness against his former Colleagues and also says that family, friends, and foot soldiers were recruited and all. I do not think that these should be part of our record, especially coming from the Leader of the House.
Mr Speaker, I would want to register these as my protest. If he is minded to take these words back, so be it. If he feels strongly about it, that indeed these should be part of the records and that Ghanaians who have been recruited should be sent home and do not deserve to be employed — I have already made my point. I have relied on what President John Dramani Mahama said and I will not litigate the matter any longer.
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