Change the law governing public appointments in Ghana – Academic
Professor Keith Bluwey, formerly of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), University of Ghana, has called for more rigorous law and procedure for the appointment of public officials in Ghana.
He said this on Wednesday in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in response to growing tension between some commissioners of the Electoral Commission (EC).
He said that unlike the United States of America (USA), where such appointments passed through rigorous scrutiny by the Senate, the processes of endorsing such persons in Ghana amounted to a mere formality.
“Their vetting is different from the way we do ours. Our vetting is something—chiefs and people coming to support the candidate, etc. It doesn’t happen like that in the US,” he informed.
According to Professor Bluwey, the President of Ghana should only have the power to nominate a person to occupy positions such as the EC Chair, but such nominations should be approved by parliament through a more rigorous procedure.
“The nomination is just a suggestion. The Senate has a committee for each ministry. Each ministry vets its ministers on the basis of their qualification for the job, and when the committee votes you down, you are not likely to be considered by the Senate even if your party is in power,” he hinted.
He cited the recent vetting of ministers in Ghana during which allegations were leveled against a minister-designate for attempting to bribe and said such things happened because our vetting system was not serious enough.
He said the performance of Mrs. Charlotte Osei, the EC Chair, had not been bad considering her ability to manage the 2016 general elections, yet he thought she had demonstrated how much she had not been in control of the Commission considering how certain things were done without her knowledge.
He said the crisis in the EC was simply because such appointments did not undergo vigorous scrutiny because of the existing legal framework.
He called on civil society organizations – CDD, GBA, IMANI, the clergy, etc. – to demand from the President a coordinated non partisan committee to probe into the EC crisis.
“Government should look at the law properly; the attorney general must study the law and take measures to replace the board, and in replacing the board we must also review the law governing the establishment of the board so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again,” he advised.
“Let’s use this opportunity to review the constitution so that we stop Parliament itself from being perceived as corrupt and the vetting process not also perceived by some Ghanaians as social show,” he informed.
Source: GNA