A former medical officer at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Dr Victor Dadzor, has blamed Ghana’s Parliament over the partisan politics in the appointment of Chief Executive Officers for the KATH.
According to him, the trend where CEOs of KATH are removed when there is a change of government is a threat to the progress of the hospital and others across the country.
His comments come on the heels of some workers of the KATH who have petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to remove the current CEO of the KATH, George Kofi Tetteh, from office.
According to the workers, former President John Dramani Mahama did not follow due process in the appointment of Mr Tetteh, therefore they want his appointment to be revoked.
Portions of the petition said: “It must be noted that Directorship position of public and civil services institutions, which Komfo Anokye is not an exception, are not political positions. The custom has continued since time immemorial to safeguard institutional memory and also provide opportunity for every qualified person to serve in vacant positions. We then find it awkward that for all the five current Directors of this hospital, the only one who did not go through competitive interview to ascend to his position as a Director is Mr George Kofi Tetteh, the Director of Administration of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.”
It added also that: “The then chief of staff, Mr Prosper Bani, kicked against the norm and wrote in a letter dated 14th October, 2014 to Ministry of Health directing the ministry to give effect to the then president’s decision to appoint Mr George Kofi Tetteh (a known NDC party activist) as the Director of Administration for Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, this was one of a kind.”
But speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of the Ghana Yensom morning show on Accra 100.5FM on Thursday, September 28 Dr Dadzor noted that the two major political parties in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) are all culprits as far as politics at the KATH is concerned.
He said: “Politics at Konfo Anoyke started way back and some of us have always been saying that politics in civil service is very bad and dangerous for the country.
“It is because of some of these things that some of us left Komfo Anokye. I remember I was tagged as anti-government during President Kufuor’s administration because I wanted the hospital to move in a particular direction.
“I realised that if you are a worker who wants the progress of the hospital, depending on which era, you are either tagged NPP or NDC and that is very dangerous. The problem cuts across the two parties NPP and NDC.
“I put the blame squarely on Parliament. They formulate laws in this country and so by now they should know that these things are destroying us and so they should enact laws to protect some these appointments and appointees.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
