Government can’t use Kufuor’s ‘midnight’ appointments as justification – Amidu

 The referencing of last minute moves by the erstwhile Kufuor administration to justify the outgoing National Democratic Congress government’s recent last minute deals hold no substance, former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, has said.

“I disagreed with what President Kufuor did but the then President-elect and his Vice-President-elect decided to let it pass without testing their constitutionality or legality. Their decision cannot bind the incoming Government so massively voted for by We The People,” Mr. Amidu has stated in an article on the matter.

Some government functionaries have pointed to former President John Kufuor’s okaying of the Single Spine Salary Scheme with just a day to leave office in 2008, as justification for the government has taken following in the weeks leading up to the handover of power on January 7, 2017.

Nonetheless, Mr. Amidu has argued that former President Kufuor’s interpretation of the law then was not binding on subsequent governments.

“I have heard some arguments justifying the midnight appointments, contracts and recruitments on the basis that former President J. A. Kufuor exercised executive powers to the last day of 6th January 2009 as precedent for what the Looter Government is now engaged in doing.”

“Another difference which is being overlooked is that President Kufuor was exhausting his eight year mandate and his interpretation of the Constitution and the laws of Ghana cannot be binding on an incoming Government that has routed the incumbent Government soundly at the polls.”

Mr. Amidu also indicated that the NDC could have challenged President’s Kufuor’s last-minute decisions, like Lawyer Philip Addison has done with his recent lawsuit, but opted not to.

“The NDC Government when it assumed office on 7th January 2009 decided not to challenge the midnight decisions of President Kufuor thus giving them legitimacy. It cannot pass for a precedent.”

“The incoming Government has through its transition team given notice of its intention to contest the midnight decisions of the Looter Government and I think the overwhelming votes it received at the polls justifies its stand. I have also read on 20th December, 2016 that, unlike the Mills/Mahama Government, Philip Addison, a lawyer, has commenced an action to challenge some of the present midnight decisions of this looter Government,” the former AG noted.