CLOGSAG outcry over politicisation of public sector

Civil and Local Governance Staff Association (CLOGSAG) has called on politicians to desist from placing party faithful to take over sensitive positions in the sector since it is at the heart of central and local governance.

The repeated outcry is to send a warning to politicians that such practice would corrupt the government machinery that can lead to destruction of the sector.

The Executive Director of CLOGSAG, Isaac Bampoe Addo who spoke on behalf of the members said political apparatchiks and goro boys have taken positions in the Civil Service and Local Government Service, a situation that have impacted negatively on the fortunes of government.

“As a result, government should expect failures in policies. For example, as these apparatchiks are spearheading policy implementation at the Ministry of Finance it was not surprising that the expectations from the E levy fell far below the estimated level”, he added.

He added that most of these apparatchiks have exhibited political party loyalty as against neutrality, professionalism, efficiency and integrity as required by the Civil and Local Government Services.

Mr Bampoe Addo quoted the Supreme Court ruling of June 2017 which states that “No civil servant must owe or be seen to owe appointment or promotion to partisan activities since visible partisanship by civil servants would severely impair, if not destroy, the public perception of neutrality”.

“Therefore, the appointment of apparatchiks and goro boys have resulted in policy failures culminating in financial difficulties that had led to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme”, Mr. Addo noted.

Meanwhile, he also mentioned how the Domestic Debt Exchange was handled has raised pertinent issues such as; the possibility that some Corporate Trustees had prior knowledge of the Domestic Debt Exchange programme and were able to convert their domestic bond holdings into either; Foreign Assets or Foreign currency, Changed the Corporate Holding into individual holding and Changed their bond holdings into cash.

“These concerns should not be left unattended to. We call on the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) to investigate this matter with regard to its permitted investment and NPRA guidelines”, he said.

He further noted the decision by government to exempt Pension Funds from the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme but added that, should government fail to honour any of our coupons, when due, CLOGSAG would embark on an indefinite Nationwide Strike.

He expressed surprise how government chose Domestic Debt Exchange as an answer to its inability to service the domestic debt liability when it could have curtailed its Flagship programmes that would have gone a long way to exhibit willingness on the part of government to live within its means.

Source: Eric Nii Sackey