<\/p>\n
Government has directed its appointees to provide comprehensive responses to allegations made against them.<\/p>\n
This forms part of several directives contained in a letter issued to all government appointees in hopes of promoting and projecting the image of the government.<\/p>\n
A letter signed by Chief of Staff, Frema Osei Opare, directed that all government appointees \u201cincluding Ministers and Chief Executive Officers,\u201d among others to \u201cprovide comprehensive responses to allegations made against them in the public domain within 12 hours of the allegations being brought to their attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter also recommended that \u201cthe government appointee concerned should work with the Minister for Information to disseminate the response.\u201d<\/p>\n
It further directed \u201call government appointees, including Ministers and Chief Executive Officers\u201d to create and manage \u201can active social media presence\u201d and admonished \u201cthose who are not present on social media to contact the Minister for Information to assist in setting up social media accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese accounts should promote government activities as well as the activities of the institutions to enable them respond timeously to the issues,\u201d the letter further instructed.<\/p>\n
Cabinet, at its last meeting held on October 6, discussed the need to establish a Government response system to address various issues in the public domain, particularly with respect to attempts to distort issues or misinform the public.<\/p>\n
Praising the directive, Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Abdul-Jalilu Ateku said the move to get political appointees to respond to allegations levelled against them is salient to the growth of Ghana\u2019s democracy and a laudable one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important that if there is any particular problem about a particular Minister or Ministry, it is important that citizens are made aware of what is happening. That is very important and will promote transparency. When you talk about accountable governance, that is it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Jalilu added that if the directive is followed to the letter, it will help curb speculations, which isn\u2019t healthy for growing democracies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen citizens or the media are asking questions, wanting information, it should be readily available because if you don\u2019t make information readily available, then it means that people will just speculate and speculations when it continues, people will tend to take it as the truth. \u201d<\/p>\n
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