By William
Yaw Owusu
Monday June
04, 2018
All is not well with
members of the Electoral Commission (EC) because the commissioners are reportedly
still in disagreement over how to hold meetings to plan the way forward for the
independent electoral body.
They were set to
meet for the first time in over a year last Thursday or so, but that meeting
was allegedly cancelled due to lack of quorum, as some of the commissioners stayed
away, citing judicial reasons.
No Meeting
A memo by a Deputy
Commissioner in-charge of Operations, Alhaji Amadu Sulley to the EC boss
appeared to have further scattered the meeting which could have been the first
in over a year.
The EC Operations chief’s
argument is that since Charlotte Osei has always used the ongoing impeachment
proceedings initiated by the Chief Justice as the basis for refusing to call
commission meetings, things should stay that way until the Chief Justice’s five-member
committee completes its work.
Sole Commissioner
The
chairperson of the EC, Charlotte Osei, has been accused of running a ‘one-man’
show by refusing to call for meetings as mandated by law, thereby leaving some
of the commissioners frustrated.
Charlotte
Osei has been at war with her two deputies since the NDC lost power.
Interestingly,
all the three top EC chieftains were appointed by the NDC under John Mahama,
but it appears they can’t work together with allegations and counter
allegations of corruption being freely traded in the public space.
Information
available to DAILY GUIDE indicates that the commissioners have not held a
single meeting for over a year - in clear breach of the 1992 Constitution - and
activities at the state institution appear to have been put on hold.
The
refusal by Charlotte Osei to call commission’ meetings was first revealed by one
of the commissioners, Ebenezer Aggrey-Fynn in a strongly-worded memo to the EC
boss to impress on her to arrange a meeting somewhere in mid-February.
Mrs.
Osei later shot back at Mr. Aggrey-Fynn, who had accused her of turning her
position into that of a Sole-Commissioner in clear breach of EC Act, 1993.
Impeachment Proceedings
She had said
in a memo response to Mr. Aggrey-Fynn that as far as she was concerned, there was
nothing happening at the EC, which required urgent attention to warrant a
Commission Meeting.
She had insisted
that she stayed all matters requiring urgent ‘policy direction’ since the
petition to initiate impeachment proceedings against her and her two deputies (Amadu
Sulley and Mrs. Georgina Opoku Amankwah) were filed.
No Peace
The predominantly
women-composed commission has not seen peace ever since the 2016 election was
held.
Information
available suggests that the EC boss, who has fallen out with Amadu Sulley (Operations)
and Mrs. Opoku Amankwa (Corporate Services) was reluctant to hold the meeting
amidst fears that when it came to decision-making through a vote, she might not
have the needed support from the other commissioners.
However,
she is taking steps to hold commission meetings because one of the
commissioners, Pauline Adobea Dadzawa, who
was reportedly not in her good books likewise Mr. Aggrey-Fynn, Amadu Sulley and
Mrs. Opoku-Amankwah, has gone on retirement and the EC Boss wants to
take advantage to ‘restore’ normalcy.
If the
meeting had been held, it was going to be attended by only five members because
Pauline Adobea Dadzawa is on retirement and Georgina
Opoku-Amankwa is on interdiction based on an official report to EOCO filed by Charlotte
Osei.
Sulley Protest
In a
memo dated May 31, 2018 directed at the EC boss, Amadu Sulley protested
Charlotte Osei’s call for a commission meeting and said the reason for the
meeting was untenable.
“Your
reason is that commission meeting has become necessary following the completion
of hearing for the impeachment process against the three commission members
cannot be true. Please note that, not until and unless a final decision has
been reached by the Committee of Enquiry the process could not be over.”
“Kindly
also take note that, at the time you purportedly sent the notice of invitation
of the meeting, you had not filed your written address slated for 31st
May 2018. Again, at the time, the Deputy Chair Corporate Services had not
finished with her witnesses at the hearing so the hearing could not be complete
as you claim.”
EOCO Case
Amadu
Sulley further said in the memo to Charlotte Osei that “it is also noteworthy
that prior to your direction for Deputy Chair, Corporate Services, Director of
Finance and Chief Accountant to proceed on leave with no internal management
decision and reason in that respect, there was a letter from EOCO suspending an
intended legitimate meeting of the commission.”
“To
date, I have neither been notified nor seen any correspondence that EOCO had
rescinded its decision to suspend an independent constitutional body like the
EC from holding its meeting. I do not know however, whether EOCO has now
directed you to go ahead and call for commission meeting.”
He told
Charlotte Osei to “take note of your response to a meeting request made by a
commission member Mr. Aggrey-Fynn and reflect whether anything substantial has
changed in the reasons you advanced for not calling a commission meeting.”
“Moreover,
since your call for commission meeting is premised on the completion of hearing
of the Commission of Enquiry, I wish to advise that the committee has not
completed its proceedings and therefore you must be guided not to do anything
in that respect.”
Main Invitation
In the
EC boss’ invitation for the meeting titled ‘Commission Meeting,’ which has
attracted a response from the Deputy Commissioner, Operations, she had called
for the meeting to be held at 10:00 am last Thursday or so.
“Following
the conclusion of hearings in the impeachment cases, I am inviting you to a
commission meeting to be held at 10:00 am on Thursday, 31 May, 2018 to discuss
the following matters,” the memo indicated, adding that among the issues to be
addressed is “the impact of the 2018 budget on electoral activities, update on
audits and investigations at the commission.”
They
were to also discuss “new policy on performance management from the Public
Service Commission, staff promotions/scheme of service and any other
businesses.
The
meeting was said to have been aborted because only three members, including
Charlotte Osei were ready to attend, stripping it of quorum.
No comments:
Post a Comment