Accountability Office Has No legal Binding - CDD

AS THE debate over the establishment of the office of accountability by the President continues Dr. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, associate executive director of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, has said there is no cause for worry since the recommendations of the office would not have legal binding.

Giving his opinion on the issue the director urged the public to allow the office to start its work to help the president monitor the conduct and the behaviour of his ministers and other appointees.

He, however, said the president would have received more commendation especially from the international transparency agencies because the idea is the first of its kind in the country.

He told The Chronicle, in an interview, that in the context of accountability, it is prudent not to give room for people to speculate about the outcome of the recommendations and assessments of the office.

That is why he has a problem with the selection of Mrs. Florence Sai as head of the office.

Despite this misgiving, Dr. Agyeman-Duah called on Ghanaians to be patient and see how the office would operate.

He said he would not recommend a review merely on the basis of the criticisms.

"I believe the president has his own mind in making the appointment. I am sure that when he was making such an appointment he knew that Mrs.Sai is the mother of one of his special aides and wife of Prof. Fred Sai, a very accomplished and respectable person who is also his special advisor on population and AIDS matters."

With this kind of relationship, he said, it may create the impression that whatever recommendations and assessments that Mrs. Sai's committee or the office may make it might be tainted, and that is where the problem lies.

"In my view if the leadership had been someone else, I believe that the president would have received high commendation."