According to him, given the important roles these Boards play in the effective running of these state institutions, it was imperative that appointments to such positions be made based on merit.

[contextly_sidebar id=”AKXwEiD2Z6DpWiYBSc4ESCZMEPU4aAaq”]Prof. Prempeh accused successive governments, including the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration of failing to sanitize the appointment processes, thus encouraging sympathizers of their parties to scramble for appointments on governing boards.

Prof. Kwesi Prempeh was speaking at an event organized by the Center for the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on Thursday to assess Akufo-Addo’s one year in office.

“CEO appointments, you would expect will be more meritocratic, somewhat competitive in this sector because many companies in this sector are also competing with private sector companies in the same market. Did we see any change from the status quo in terms of CEO appointments? Definitely not. We saw a lot of open scramble for positions among partisans, there was no meritocratic competition that we observed,” he said.

“Partisan criteria seemed to be the name of the game. Not to say that every one of the people appointed CEO are unqualified. We are talking more about the process by which we got them appointed and the process remains closed, opaque and a partisan process which is sometimes played out in the open. Party loyalists see these positions as rewards for contribution towards the campaign or election success.”

Why partisan appointments

Supporters of political parties that win elections often feel a sense of entitlement, demanding to be brought into the core government machinery.

There’s often intense pressure put on government’s to appoint persons who were seen to be major contributors to the election victories.

This phenomenon has been heavily criticized by civil society organisations in the country who insist that such practices to be stopped because it could breed corruption.

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By: Sixtus Don Ullo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Kwasi Prempeh criticizes ‘partisan appointments’ to governing Boards appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

In a research conducted by the Department which focused on democratic governance, 49% of the 5000 voters sampled, endorsed the Free Senior High School [SHS] programme, making it one of popular initiatives of the government.

[contextly_sidebar id=”NjKpQFVfUQn3xJwCIxU6Q9WHNP915mVb”]It was followed by government’s fight against illegal mining, which was at 37%.

On the Office of the Special Prosecutors Bill, 64% of Ghanaians backed government’s decision.

Dr. Bossman Asare, Head of the Political Science Department at the University, who presented the findings, however, said Ghanaians had mixed feelings about the character of the yet-to-be-named Special Prosecutor.

“Citizens expect their government to pursue policies that have the capacity to transform their livelihoods and they view a successful government as one that initiates transformative policies, and here what we are basically saying is that, once you are doing good things, citizens identify with you.”

“In Ghana, there seems to be a high popular endorsement support for government innovative policies. In terms of ranking the policies, the Free SHS stands at 41. 2 percent. Clamping down on illegal mining came second at 37.2 percent, then behind that, restoration of Teacher and Nursing allowance is 36.5 percent.

On the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Dr. Asare noted that “Although the NHIS for example is not so perfect, we heard the voters making it very clear that they thought that it has seen some revival.”

This rating comes days after the Industrial Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) scored Nana Addo’s government 80% in its assessment, but emphasized the need for government to speed up processes to get the Special Prosecutor Office running effectively.

58% of voters want Mahama as Flagbearer

According to the survey, 58% of voters indicated they want former President Mahama to lead the opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC in the 2020 elections.

“We wanted to find out who the voters think should lead the party in 2020 and overwhelmingly 58% of the candidates we interviewed said they believed Mr. Mahama will become the candidate. It means when you look at the graph, some people were getting 2 percent. Prof Alabi, Ricketts Hagan, Spio Grabrah, I think all of them were getting less than 7% so we were all surprised.”

11 controversies that rocked NPP gov’t in 2017

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government officially marked the first year of its administration on 7th January, 2017, after wresting power from the then NDC government led by John Dramani Mahama.

The party claimed electoral victory on the back of many campaign promises aimed at boosting social infrastructure and providing a convenient economic environment for private businesses to thrive.

Despite the 62% acceptance rating, the government has had its share of controversies, with several of them being alleged corruption scandals.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post 62% of Ghanaians ‘happy’ with NPP’s performance – UG Report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

It has taken the president six months to restart this age-old practice where presidents sit and answer wide-ranging questions about their performance from members of the media.

Nana Akuffo-Addo came to the presidency on a huge mandate, one that indicates how desperate many Ghanaians were for the change he promised. As a citizen, I understand change takes time, but I look around Accra and wonder how long I must wait to walk without holding my breathe.

As a journalist, I’m not sure I have a sense of the government’s plan to change how we live, work and play.

I haven’t been invited to this presser, so here are my questions, questions that demand urgent answers so we may learn and know what the Akufo-Addo government has in store for us.

I don’t mind how the questions will be asked, I just want answers on the issues raised. I am hoping the selected journalists will go in there and get answers for these, and not spend precious minutes thanking or praising the president for the opportunity to grill him.

Here we go:

1. Can you explain why Accra is still filthy, chaotic and lawless, six months after you promised to make it the cleanest city in Africa? Or you mean work would start at the end of your term in office?

2. What exactly has the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources been doing since his appointment?

3. Now that you’ve had time to work with the 110 ministers you chose, do you still insist that you made the best decision or you plan to review downwards based on current performance?

4. The Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious is facilitating a pilgrimage to Israel despite calls from the Christian Council and other quarters against it. Did Cabinet approve this trip and are those of us who think this is a waste of time and resources missing something important here?

5. The banner for this presser has the #6MonthsOfResults, can you list some of the results your people were referring to in there?

6. What do you think of the Ghana@60 celebrations so far, given that you allocated a budget of 20 million for the yearlong celebration?

7. It is safe to say that your first major scandal is the BOST saga, I hope it is also safe to assume you’re up to date on the peculiarities of the mess, so do you still think the Minister of Energy’s handling of all of it was the best for the future of the Bulk Oil Storage Transportation Company?

8. Did you sign off the BNI report that claimed the MD of BOST was innocent, even though there is evidence that shows that he awarded contract to unregistered companies?

9. We have been told by the MP for Assin North, Kennedy Agyapong that the BOST MD funded your campaign, which is why he wasn’t made to resign or thoroughly investigated. If this isn’t true, why hasn’t anyone at the top of your government and party vigorously debunked it?

10. You promised during the campaign to review contracts and retrieve stolen monies, you and your team have had six months, can you name some of the previous scandals being investigated for court?

11. Would you per chance know what has happened to the investigations into the Ameri power agreement which your team revealed was overpriced?

12. You also pledged to plug the loopholes in the public sector, to save money and reduce corruption. One of the most corrupt institutions is the passport office here in Accra. One, is there a reason that wasn’t one of the first things your foreign affairs minister tackled? Two, doesn’t it hurt you to know that citizens of this country queue at 5:00am to get a passport?

13. You recently appointed a new Chief Justice, what terms of reference did you give her about the judiciary? Is the radical transformation of the judiciary on the cards or it’s just business as usual?

14. Speaking of courts, long before the members of the Delta Force stormed the Kumasi High Court and the Regional Coordinating Council, there had been suggestions for a complete ban on such groups, what’s your view on this?

15. You never really explained why you were criss-crossing Africa, meeting all kinds of leaders, what are seeking to achieve with that?

16. First, is the job as you envisaged or you’re overwhelmed by the challenges?

17. What is the one thing you didn’t anticipate about this job that has you surprised, overwhelmed or shocked you at times?

18. Why has it taken you six months to meet the press?

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By: Nana Ama Agyemang Asante/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post 18 Questions Nana Addo must answer at Tuesday’s presser appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Out of the 36 ministerial appointments currently made by the President, only 9 women have been given positions in the new administration, a situation WILDAF considers unacceptable.

Speaking to Citi News, Board Member of WILDAF, Magdalene Kannae,  asked President Nana Addo to deliver on his promise to ensure 30 percent of his appointees are women.

“Only 9 women have been nominated to occupy ministerial positions out of a total of 36 which represents just 25 percent.  This falls short of the international, regional and national standards as well as the New Patriotic Party’s own provision of minimum threshold of 30 percent women’s representation in its 2016 manifesto.”

“The available data indicates that, Ghana has not achieved beyond 23.4 percent of women’s representation in all public and political appointments since independence. If the current trend of appointment continues, Ghana is not likely to achieve even the minimum threshold of women’s representation in the next 50 years. The NPP government should fulfill its social development agenda provision in their 2016 manifesto of having at least 30 percent women in public office.”

Make women leaders to reduce corruption – GII

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) had earlier asked government to increase the number of women in critical positions to curb corruption.

According to GII, results from a research they conducted showed that men in leadership position would turn out to be more corrupt than women in similar positions

The report indicated that “a total of 498 respondents (81.5%) felt that there would be more likely less corruption if more women were put into positions of responsibility.”
“Similarly, 61.2% of the respondents felt that a person likely to bribe another person is generally a man than a woman,” the report added.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post Nana Addo must include more women – WILDAF appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.