The Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, has defended Chief of Staff Julius Debrah’s decision to revoke post-election appointments and recruitments made by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration.
Speaking in Parliament on Friday, February 15, 2025, he reiterated that the government would not allow irregular recruitments to remain in place.
“It is not a question of whether or not they are Ghanaians. It is about the proper management of the state. That is why the NDC government, that is why the NDC as a party, realized 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 labor force that is needed to manage it.
“And so, if you, at the time that we were cautioning you during transition to be circumspect with your recruitment exercise, and you said you will not do it, what makes you think that 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”, he stated.
He criticised the previous government’s hiring process, arguing that it lacked transparency.
“We said, even if you have to recruit, go through the proper advertisements and give every young person an opportunity”, he noted.
The Majority Leader accused the Akufo-Addo administration of abusing its discretion in the recruitment process.
“If we interrogate a lot of the recruitment that took place, you will realize clearly that those recruitments amounted to abuse of discretion. There was no proper advertisement. 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 you advertise? How many did you advertise? How many did you give an opportunity to every Ghanaian to apply and be taken through the proper processes? We know what happened in this country. And that is why Ghanaians voted overwhelmingly for the NDC, because what happened was wrong”, he added.
The Chief of Staff has issued a directive revoking all appointments and recruitments made into the public service establishments after December 7, 2024.
He has requested all heads of government institutions to take necessary steps to annul these appointments and recruitments into public offices.
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In the meantime, watch the story of the Ghanaian team that rode motorbikes from Accra to Dakar and back in 17 days, below: