The spokesperson of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) transitional team, Hanna Tetteh, has denied allegations government officials are doctoring handing-over notes.
The acting General Secretary and National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, in an interview with Class News’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson, accused some ministers of state of doctoring documents they are supposed to hand over to the incoming NPP government.
“There are a lot of NDC people going round trying to auction cars and shredding documents. Per the Transition Act, ministers are expected to file their handing over notes 30 days before the general elections, but as we speak, majority of the ministries have not done so. These are supposed to be filed at the Administrator General’s office, so it is expected that the transition team will receive these filed handing-over notes from the Administrator General… The constitution is clear that 30 days before the general elections, all these handing over notes should be submitted. If the chairman of the NDC is mindful of the constitution of this country, he should advise his ministers to stop doctoring the handing over notes. What will be the reason why they will want to doctor the handing over note that have been done?” he asked.
In response to Mr Boadu’s allegation, Ms Tetteh told Emefa Apawu on 505 on Class 91.3FM on Thursday December 15 that every ministry has its handing over notes ready and will be handed over to the NPP’s transitional team during their second meeting on Monday (December 19).
“It is important for us to act through the transitional teams. It is the reason why the transition team was established. It creates a framework within which we can engage each other and where we can seek clarification on issues on which we want further information. There is no constitutional provision on transition. The transition is governed by the Presidential Transition Act of 2012 Act 845. It is not a constitutional provision. He is right that indeed the act provides that the copies of the handing over notes should be sent to the office of the Administrator General 30 days before the date of the presidential election. It is also the case that 30 days before the presidential elections, almost every minister was out of office campaigning. And so those handing-over notes were ready. It is also the requirement that you the minister responsible for the sector must sign those handing-over notes. Now you will appreciate the fact that nobody will sign anything without taking the trouble to read through and understand what he/she has appended his signature to,” she explained.
“In the case of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, I can confirm that after I read my handing over note, I actually realised that there was omission because there were three appendixes detailing assets of the ministry that had not been attached. And so I asked the staff of the ministry to make sure that those appendixes were available as an addendum to the handing-over note. So, on the contrary, I haven’t taken anything out of the handing over notes; I have actually added to the handing-over notes and that generally has been the case across board, because we are aware as responsible public officers who have taken an oath that whatever it is that we append our signatures to, we will be asked questions about those things at future dates.”
She disclosed that at the first transitional meeting on Wednesday December 14, the NPP’s transitional team was given handing-over notes for eight ministries, which also cover their departments and agencies. “We also indicated that the rest of them will be ready in the course of the day and we asked if we should hand them over immediately or wait until the next meeting of the transition team. It was agreed by both sides that for all the handing over notes that were not available at the time we had our first meeting, we would hand them over at our second meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Monday morning,” she said.
The Foreign Affairs Minister stressed that to the best of her knowledge, handing-over notes to every ministry was available and would be handed over at the next meeting.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
