Transfer of power: Joint transition team cross swords …over last-minute recruitments, payments

 The Government side and Presi­dent-elect John Mahama’s side on the Joint Transition Team is in disagree­ment over whether or not some payments and recruitments should be referred to the team for consideration.

While Felix Kwakye Ofosu, spokesperson for the Mahama Transition Team thinks that such last-minute decisions were to be subject­ed to the consideration of the team, Fatima Abubakar, the Minister for Information, said no such resolution has been reached.

“At the second meeting of the Joint Tran­sition Team, held on Friday, December 13, 2024, it was agreed that all ongoing significant payments, recruitments, and other such activi­ties must be submitted to the Transition Team for consideration on case-by-case basis,” Mr Ofosu said in a statement.

He explained in the statement dated De­cember 13, 2024 that doing this would bring clarity to status of the payments and recruit­ments and offer an amicable structure to satisfactorily address the issues involved.

“All public officials are, therefore, strongly encouraged to comply without fail and resist any undue pressures,” the statement cau­tioned.

But the Minister for Information has dis­missed the claims of the John Mahama Team.

She said in a statement on Friday that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s mandate was yet to end and every decision being taken was lawful.

“Regarding concerns about ongoing recruitment and payments, it was noted that the government’s term expires at midnight January 6, 2025.

“These recruitment processes and pay­ments have received the relevant statutory approvals and have not proven to be illegal,” she says in a statement on Friday.

While reiterating the Government’s com­mitment to a seamless transition, Madam Abubakar entreated the citizenry to “disre­gard any statement purporting to indicate that the [Team] has taken a decision to the effect that all ongoing payments and recruitment should be referred to the Transition Team, as such statements do not reflect the record of the meeting”.

The banter between the two sides follows earlier concerns raised by Mr Ofosu on Wednesday, the first sitting of the Team, that a significant payment of GH¢240 million has been paid to an entity that conducted business with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

“We have picked up information and indeed we’ve seen documentation relating to efforts to pay over GH¢240 million to an entity that is supposed to have done some business with the ECG. Now, if it was being paid to IPPs to keep the power on, one per­haps would not have an issue, but it is being paid to an entity whose work in my view is not as critical as IPPs,” he told the press.

While acknowledging that payments to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) might be justified to keep the power supply stable, he questioned the urgency and necessity of the payment of the GH¢240 million.

Good governance, Felix Kwakye Ofosu said required that the incoming government is given the opportunity to make these deci­sions.

According to him, the team suggest­ed broader consultations to address these matters, citing the incoming government’s re­sponsibility to manage the fiscal implications.

On the recruitment, the former Deputy Minister for Communication said there were last-minute recruitment processes across min­istries, departments and agencies.

“The timing of the recruitment would have severe fiscal implications on the incoming government,” he remarked.