BE ABOVE PARTISAN POLITICS - CIVIL SERVANTS ADVISED (P.1) 10-01-09

Story: Kofi Yeboah
WITH substantive political heads yet to be appointed for the various ministries, civil servants have been advised to demonstrate a high sense of professionalism in the running of government business and be apolitical under the new administration.
The Chief Director at the Office of the Head of the Civil Service, Mrs Rebecca Amoah Aboagye, who gave the advice, said politics “is not the pastime” of civil servants and demanded selflessness, fairness, integrity and accountability from civil servants to ensure the successful execution of government programmes and projects.
She made the comments when the Daily Graphic visited the Ministries on Thursday to find out how workers were going about their duties, in the absence of ministers, on the first day of Prof Mills’s tenure in office.
The visit was also to find out the expectations of workers of the new government and how they were bracing themselves up for the challenges of nation building.
Information gathered indicated that many of the ministers under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration wrapped up their stewardship last Tuesday and bade farewell to their workers.
Some of the ministers, the Daily Graphic learnt, had returned their cross-country vehicles to their respective ministries.
Mrs Aboagye said the Civil Service operated on rules and regulations, which prescribed the chief director as the bureaucratic head, while the Minister of State provided political direction to achieve the goals of the government.
She said in the absence of a Minister of State, the chief director was required to provide leadership in the administration of government until ministerial appointments were made.
During that period, Mrs Aboagye explained, the chief director did not perform any new activity that required political direction and leadership.
She said the Civil Service worked without reference to partisan politics but under the guidance of the Executive, which had the mandate of the people through the manifesto of the ruling party.
Mrs Aboagye cited the Civil Servants Code of Conduct whose guideline principles enjoined civil servants to exhibit a sense of fairness, selflessness and justice and take decisions solely in the interest of the public.
She said although one might have his or her political views, one must not allow those views to undermine his or her professional conduct, adding that one’s focus must be on the development agenda of the government, and not politics.
The Chief Director at the Ministry of Manpower and Employment, Mr E. A. Akuffo, said there had not been any official information from the new administration regarding the administration of the ministry and so work was going on as usual.
He recalled that after the change in government in 2001, the newly-elected government sent representatives to the various ministries to monitor events until substantive appointments were made.
Some of the workers told the Daily Graphic that they had been going about their normal duties.
On Thursday evening the President directed that until substantive ministers were appointed, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were not to make any payments or enter into contracts for purchase.
The Presidential Spokesperson, Mr Mahama Ayariga, said at a press briefing in Accra that “any emergencies should be referred to the Office of the President”.
The President said further that all non-statutory payments, including all cheques deposited with the banks but not yet cleared, should be referred to the Office of the President for approval.
“The Controller and Accountant-General is to take note of the above directives and ensure that they are complied with,” he stressed.