Soon after the government of President John Dramani Mahama was sworn into office, it took the unprecedented decision of dismissing hundreds of people in the public sector with the claim that they had been employed late in the administration of former President Akufo-Addo.
Now the Minister of State for Government Communication, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, says that the government will reinstate these public sector workers whose appointments were revoked after December 7, 2024, if it is established that due process was followed.
Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story on Tuesday, September 16, Kwakye Ofosu revealed that a revocation committee, operating under the auspices of the Chief of Staff, has been tasked to carefully review all such appointments and dismissals.
“As I speak to you, there’s a revocation committee set up under the auspices of the Chief of Staff, which is perusing all the cases on their merits and where it is found that due process was not followed, the dismissals will stand, but where it is shown that due process is followed, those people will be reinstated,” Mr Ofosu said.
This is an admission by the government that it has recognized that in some instances, those who were targeted and drummed out of the government were unfairly treated.
The fact is that government is a continuum, and once we decide to have a government, its decisions and actions, even on the last day in office, ought to be respected and abided by.
It is shocking that a government that expects its own decisions to be respected and obeyed, would adopt the decision that certain actions of its predecessor government should be abrogated, when it had not conducted necessary studies to establish the efficacy of those decisions.
We at the Daily Searchlight believe that the decision to dismiss so many people across sectors and institutions was hasty, ill-considered, thoughtless and likely to have long-term deleterious effect.
If the government has realized the error of its ways, the best thing to do is to reverse the decision wholesale, even before deciding to examine each situation on its merits.
(Editorial of the Daily Searchlight of 17th September, 2025).
