There is grave concern within the corridors of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The tension is arising over several key decisions taken by the acting Chief Executive Officer (Ag CEO) grafted onto the organization by President John Dramani Mahama. Her name is Professor Nana Ama Browne Klutse, and before her appointment she was the Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Ghana and the Vice-Chair of the Working Group for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Among the decisions raising concern are mass arbitrary transfers of key staff and the decision to employ over two thousand (two thousand) new staff into senior management positions.
At present, it has been reported that at least seven hundred (700) news staff has been appointed out of the two thousand.
Before January, 2025, the entire staffing levels of the EPA stood at just about seven hundred.
The decisions by the Ag. CEO is particularly worrisome against the background that the EPA is yet to get a board of governors (directors), meaning the acting CEO, who is yet to be confirmed to the substantive position, is flying on a limb without a branch.
Sources close to the organization told the Daily Searchlight yesterday that presently Professor Klutse has started the recruitment process.
“She has engaged up to about seven hundred people. Previously, the entire workforce at the EPA across Ghana was seven hundred. In just a couple of weeks this lady is adding seven hundred more. She intends to do two thousand but she has done seven hundred now,” the highly placed source stated.
The mass recruitment is coming at a time there is a ban on public service recruitment.
Interestingly, the EPA currently does not have a board, and information gathered by the Daily Searchlight suggest that appointments into certain positions like Deputy Director requires that there be a Board.
“With certain appointments you need the approval of your board in order to engage them because of the implications on the agency’s finances,” the source stated.
The source revealed that the recruitment has gone as far as appointing staff to locations where the EPA has no offices.
“This lady is employing and recruiting people without any offices for them to work. People are being employed to be stationed at places like Nsawam, Manso Nkwanta and others, where we currently have no offices,” the source stated.
Another worry, the staff alleged, is that people are being employed at the level of Director and Deputy Director, senior officers.
“Now you know that in the public service, when you engage someone from outside, because of single spine salary structure, you have to start at the analogous grade. This is where she is bringing people from outside and she places them sometimes on a scale of 21 or 22, Deputy Director Rank. But when you are entering the service, you start as Assistant Environmental Protection Officer. Then you move up the rank. But this is not so in this case,” the staff alleged.
STALLING SALARY UPGRADE
They stated that when Professor Klutse came in, the previous administration had already approved salary increments, but she stopped the payment with the excuse that there was no money and no Board in place.
“So she put a moratorium on it. So why are you now engaging in this recruitment drive when there is no Board, and secondly, putting people in key middle-level positions without the approved by the board?” they questioned.
They also alleged that Professor Klutse has been claiming that some of the new appointments are on just people on ‘contracts’ who can be dismissed at a moment’s notice.
“We know that the government has stated that we shouldn’t be doing that. She is in essence giving contracts to people to work, because people are complaining about the salaries we are going to pay them. So she is trying to sidestep this criticism by saying that they are on contract so you can get rid of them any time you want,” they said.
Professor Nana Ama Browne Klutse was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama as the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) within his second week in office.
The Presidency officially announced her appointment on Saturday, January 18, 2025. Prof. Klutse before then was serving as the Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Ghana and was the Vice-Chair of the Working Group for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Prof. Klutse described the appointment as both an honour and a significant responsibility to serve the nation.
She highlighted some of Ghana’s pressing environmental challenges, including air quality concerns, climate change, and waste management, and expressed her commitment to collaborating with stakeholders to develop practical solutions for a healthier environment.
