Editorial: �Civil Servants and Politicians Must Work Together�

The Justice Douse Committee investigating alleged irregularities involving activities of the defunct [email protected] Secretariat has exposed the high degree of lack of coordination between institutional heads and civil servants.

The Committee began by investigating the various assemblies by visiting the coordinators before the District Chief Executives and Regional Ministers followed suit. Most of the coordinators who appeared before the Commission leveled all sorts of allegations against their superior officers by painting gloomy pictures about their operations.

Later, it turned out that some of the allegations were unnecessary, due to the lack of coordination among the various district executives.

For instance, the Eastern Regional Coordinating Director, Mr. Samuel Awuni Bawa, had testified before the committee that the then Minister, Mr. Yaw Barimah kept most of the anniversary clothes in his house, and they could not therefore locate the whereabouts of the items to account for them.

When Mr. Yaw Barimah took his turn at the Commission, he pointed out that Mr. Bawa was not the Coordinating Director at the time of the celebrations, and that if he had been consulted by Mr. Bawa, he would have explained to him where the items were being kept, at the time he was leaving the Ministry.

Again, during the testimony of the Volta Regional Coordinating Director, Mr. Komla Adzato-Ntem, he accused the then Minister, Mr. Komla Adzato-Ntem, he accused the then Minister, Mr. Kofi Dzamesi of hijacking the management of the celebrations and even used part of the funds to renovate his residence and to purchase air conditioners, with some being installed in his bedroom.

When the Minister was invited to respond to the allegations, he clarified that all decisions that were taken by the region was in conformity with directions given by the [email protected] Secretariat. He again clarified that none of the air conditioners was installed in his bedroom and that the renovation affected every building in the regional residency, which includes the Presidential residence in the region.

All these events clearly reveal how civil servants are always at war with the politicians, instead of coming together to work for the interest of the state.

The Chronicle on Saturday would therefore like to advise both politicians and civil servants to take a cue from what occurred at the [email protected] probe, and to work assiduously for the betterment of mother Ghana.

Source: The Chronicle