Julius Debrah
Information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that several public sector appointees of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are still occupying their offices as public officers despite their selection as the party?s parliamentary candidates for the December 7, 2012 polls.
Constitutionally, this is a serious violation of public service rules guiding the conduct of public servants in the execution of their functions.
Key among these public officers is Julius Debrah, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourist Authority (GTA).
He has attracted criticism from visitors to the GTA who complain bitterly that the GTA has been virtually converted into a campaign office for Mr. Debrah who is the Eastern regional chairman of the NDC and the parliamentary candidate for the Suhum constituency in the Eastern Region.
DAILY GUIDE sources said people from his constituency trooped to the GTA on a daily basis for their usual political soliciting activities. It is believed that the situation sometimes truncates important work at the GTA. Mr. Debrah is also accused of using official vehicles of the GTA for political campaigns.
When contacted by DAILY GUIDE, Ohene Aryeh, Public Relations Officer of the GTA, conceded that Mr. Debrah knew he should have vacated his office. ?Indeed, he has expressed his willingness to leave,? Mr. Aryeh told DAILY GUIDE.
However, for unknown reasons, the Minister of Tourism, Akua Sena Dansua and the Board of the GTA have kept him at post.
Mr. Debrah believed that even though he was willing to leave the authority to pursue his political ambition, the final decision of his exit rested with the board.
Indeed, the regulator of the public service, the Public Service Commission (PSC), recently stated that such a situation was a clear violation of the Public Service Code stipulated in the Ghanaian constitution. According to the commission, such officers did not need the permission of anybody to exit.
In May, 2012, the PSC issued a strongly worded directive to restrain public officers from assuming dual roles as politicians and public servants at the same time. In its directive, the PSC stated, ?The Public Service Commission has learnt from media and other sources that a number of public servants have contested, or indicated their intention to contest the primaries on the tickets of political parties for elections as Members of Parliament during December 2012 general elections.?
The commission stated unequivocally, ?The commission wishes to reiterate its position, as stated in the directive issued in 2008, that this action, or intended action, is a contravention of Article 284 of the 19192 Constitution which provides that a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts or is likely to conflict with the performance of their functions of his office.?
Other civil society groups have also condemned the tendency of public servants in the Mills administration to hold on to double portfolios (politicians and public servants).
Within Ghanaian statutes, a public officer includes any person holding an office by election or appointment under any enactment or under powers conferred by any enactment. These include officers in the Police Service, the Prisons Service, the Armed Forces, the Judicial Service, the Legal Service, the Civil Service, the Audit Service, the Parliamentary Service, the Statistical Service, the Fire Service, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, the Immigration Service, or the Internal Revenue Service.
In May, anti-corruption advocate Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) called on all public officers who contested their parties? primaries and were proceeding to contest the impending general elections, to resign their public positions immediately.
GII urged the chairperson of the Public Services Commission and the head of Civil Service to sanction them appropriately.
?In fact, they should have resigned before contesting their party primaries but escaped the watchful eyes of the electorate,? stated the anti-graft organization.
According to the statement, which was signed by Vitus A. Azeem, Executive Director of GII, ?Based on all these provisions GII, as an anti-corruption watchdog, wishes to call on all public officers who campaigned for elections as parliamentary candidates at their party?s primaries to resign immediately, if they have not already done so.?
By Raphael Adeniran
