General News of Sunday, 23 July 2017
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2017-07-23
The Electoral Commission (EC) boss has hinted, her embattled deputy Georgina Opoku Amankwaah could be behind a petition seeking her impeachment.
Charlotte Osei has revealed, legal practitioner Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang who filed the petition on behalf of the so-called ‘concerned staff’ is the same lawyer representing the deputy Georgina Amankwaah who is under investigation.
The EC chair dropped the hint in her reply to the 27-point petition asking for her impeachement.
Allegations raised in the petition range from questions about her managerial competence, political neutrality and what the staff say are breaches of contracts and the public procurement act.
But Charlotte Osei is demanding to know the identities of the accusing staff.
“Whilst he [counsel] claims to act on behalf of ‘Concerned Staff’ of the Commission, he has not made clear who those ‘staff’ indeed are,” the EC boss said.
With the names of the petitioners remaining unknown for the past days, Mrs Osei has given a pointer her aggrieved deputy might be behind plot to have her dismissed.
The relationship between EC boss and Mrs Opoku Amankwaah has been reportedly fragile since Charlotte Osei was appointed by President John Mahama in June, 2015.
Georgina Amankwaah and Charlotte Osei have both worked at the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE).
But Mrs. Osei’s next career move would see her become the new EC boss while her former colleague remained a deputy EC.
The fall-out worsened after the EC boss asked her deputy Mrs. Amankwaah to proceed on leave after she was named in a missing ¢480,000 endowment cash for EC staff.
The anti-graft agency, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) is investigating the issue. But Georgina Amankwaah represented by her counsel Mr. Agyemang has protested the directive to go on leave.
The Akuapim South MP, Osei Bonsu Amoah has pointed out the EC set a “dangerous precedent” when the EC chair ordered her deputy to proceed on leave on the instructions of EOCO.