Presidency dismisses claims some MMDCE nominees not shortlisted

The Jubilee House has dismissed allegations that the President has appointed a number of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies Chief Executives (MMDCEs) who were not shortlisted for the positions.

According to some civil society organisations (CSOs), about 44 per cent of the MMDCEs appointed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo were not recommended by the three-member committee that vetted nominations for the positions.

The CSOs also claimed that about 10 per cent of the nominees appointed by the President did not apply for the positions and questioned the basis for their appointments

Responding to the allegations, the Director of Communications at the Jubilee House, Eugene Arhin, said the CSOs based their allegation on a leaked report on the nominees shortlisted for the MMDCE positions.

“I can say on authority that that report was not the report that was submitted to the President,” he said, adding that there were currently only two copies of the reports on the MMDCEs-one with the President and the other with a Deputy Chief of Staff.

Mr Arhin further pointed out that the Constitution had given the President the power to hire his appointees on his own accord and indicated that vetting committee only provided support to guide his decision.

“He is not bound by the recommendations of any report. He decides what he has to do,” he said, indicating that the President had every right to set aside the recommendations of his own committee to make his own appointments.

While dismissing the authenticity of the report which formed the basis for the allegations by the CSOs, Mr Arhin said the President was not bound by any law to resort to any report to hire or fire his appointees.

Touching on threats and reports that some of his appointees would be voted out, Mr Arhin said the President was unperturbed by the threats.

“It is a human institution so we expect that there would definitely be agitations. If at the end of the day, voting is conducted and a nominee is rejected, the President can re-nominate that person on two occasions.”

“If on all the two occasions that person is rejected, the Constitution gives him the power to present somebody else. Agitation is a normal phenomenon of human life,” he said, noting that the President was satisfied with his appointees.

Mr Arhin briefed the media of the President’s activities when he left the country last week for the United Nations General Assembly in New York and his activities for the week.

He said President Akufo-Addo had begun a series of consultative meetings with his ministers to assess their work programme for the remainder of the year, and their budgets for the year 2022.

“From Friday, the President will resume his regional tours. He will begin the tours with a week-long visit to the Ashanti and Eastern regions,” he said

BY YAW KYEI