Last
Wednesday, the Chief of Staff and Leader of the Government Transition
Team, Mr Julius Debrah, gave an assurance that “by next Monday all the
other ministries would have submitted their reports, so that the
transition team would know how to proceed with its work”.
This
was after the reports of only eight ministries — Finance, Lands and
Natural Resources, Transport, Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs, Food
and Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Defence and the Interior —
had been submitted at the Joint Transition Team’s maiden meeting.
“Most
of the handing-over notes minus the handing-over notes for the Office
of Government Machinery are present here,” the Spokesperson for the
government side of the Joint Transition Team, Ms Hanna Serwaa Tetteh,
told journalists.
She explained that the reports covered all agencies and departments under the various ministries.
The
ministries that have submitted their handover notes are Justice and
Attorney General, Roads and Highways, Employment and Labour Relations
and Health.
Others are the Local Government
Service Secretariat, Office of the Head of the Civil Service, Northern,
Volta, Central, Brong Ahafo, Upper East, Upper West, Ashanti, Western,
Eastern and Greater Accra regions.
The rest are
the ministries of Local Government and Rural Development, Education,
Power, Petroleum, Water Resources, Works and Housing, Tourism, Gender
and Social Protection, Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation,
Youth and Sports, Communications, Foreign Affairs and Regional
Integration, as well as the Inter-Ministerial Committee of
Decentralisation and the Department of Parks and Gardens.
Ms
Tetteh also announced that the Member of Parliament-elect for
Ofoase-Ayirebi, Mr Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, had replaced Mr Mustapha Hamid
as the Spokesperson for the incoming government’s side of the transition
team.
Consultation mechanism
She
said both sides of the team had agreed, during discussions, on a
consultation mechanism by which they would engage each other “if there
are any issues that are arising out of the handing-over notes or any
other matters that are pertaining to the transition”.
“And
should the need arise, we will invite you for briefings periodically,
but it will be briefing that is done and called at the behest of our two
co-chairs, who will then make any information available that they
consider is important to be put in the public domain,” she said.
She
said they had also agreed on a working framework, completed the
handover of the notes and “at this time the transition team will begin
its work in earnest”.
The Administrator General
of the Presidential Estates Unit, Mr David Yaro, then presented the
reports of the ministries to the representative of the President-elect
on the incoming government’s side of the transition team, Mr Yaw
Osafo-Maafo.
Work on reports
“This
is the beginning of the work of the transition team,” Mr Osafo-Maafo
said, adding that after receiving the reports of the ministries,
districts, departments and agencies, the team would go through them and
ask for any clarifications if there was the need.
He
confirmed that 31 reports had been submitted to the team, minus a
report from the Office of Government Machinery, adding: “The other time
we received eight; eight plus 31 means 39. The report from Finance, as
it was read out to you, has been received and that is the most important
of them all.”
Mr Osafo-Maafo asked for time
for the transition team to study all the reports to ensure there was
clarity, transparency and the smooth transition of power.
“We
don’t want to get into acrimony because of transition; it doesn’t help
Ghana because our image out there is relevant. The press should also
bear in mind that our image out there is relevant. So as much as
possible, we will go to work through consultation,” he said.
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