Vice President of IMANI Ghana Kofi Bentil believes President John Mahama did not renew the contracts of two senior staff members at the seat of government to end the seeming power play at the seat of government, Flagstaff House.
[contextly_sidebar id=”jscCUDZR3aqwcK9Qa67BSkRnbGNPARDz”]His comment follows the exit of Ben Dotse Malor and Dr Raymond Atuguba who served as spokesperson and Executive Secretary to the President respectively.
Prior to their exit, it had been widely reported that the two officials had a tensed working relationship with other senior staff members of staff at the seat of government.
A statement released by the Flagstaff house and signed by the Chief of Staff Prosper Bani stated that “Mr Malor has been on a one year contract which began in January of 2014 when he joined the Flagstaff House Communications Bureau as an advisor and spokesperson for the President. Having completed the term of the contract, Mr Malor is returning to the United Nations from where he had taken a one-year leave of absence.”
For Dr Raymond Atuguba, the statement added that he had returned to the University of Ghana at the end of a two-year sabbatical leave.
Commenting on the development, Kofi Bentil told Citi News that the decisions taken by the two top former government officials was to enable the President restore sanity at the seat of government.
“All these things that seem to be going on in the Flagstaff House points on to some kind of loss of control. We have all heard of stories about people in the Flagstaff House who have more power than the people who hold substantive positions. So clearly not all is well at the Flagstaff House,” he stated.
Kofi Bentil doubted the explanation given by the Presidency that the two senior ex-government officials exited due to the expiration of their contracts.
“The issue about whether they had a contract or not and whether that is why the changes are going on, really for those who are watching, they are not the real issues. I think this is the President’s move to try and gain some control over what is happening in his own office,” he explained.
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By: Franklin Badu Jnr/citifmonline.com/Ghana