Botwe Explains Appointment Of DCES

The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, Dan Botwe, says the party has not given any directive asking for applications from eligible citizens to put in their applications and CVs.

Reacting to media reports that several people have put in applications to be considered for the post of District Chief Executives (DCEs) or mayors, Botwe said the nomination of the DCE is not a partisan event which should go through the NPP's party offices. The President will do it after consultations with broad sections of people.

Recent media reports said several NPP regional and constituency offices are being flooded with application letters and Curriculum Vitae to be considered as DCEs.

In Koforidua, it was reported that a total of 60 persons have applied for appointment as District Chief Executives (DCE) for the 16 districts of the Eastern region.

The report said the regional executive was liaising with the constituency executives to short list three candidates each for consideration. The regional executive was to screen the candidates before forwarding their applications to the President for his nomination.

The story also said that this procedure would ensure transparency in the selection of suitable candidates to eliminate bickering that often characterised the endorsement of the president's nominees by the assemblies.

"People will want to present themselves through their resumes and some might have mistakenly written applications but we have not advertised neither have we invited anybody," Botwe told Public Agenda in an interview recently.

He also said it is not true that the party has procedure in place for nominating people for the positions.

"Pressure is being put on party officials in case the President consults them."

Reacting to criticisms on the termination of appointment of all DCEs by the government, Botwe said his party by revoking the appointment of DCEs has not broken any law.

He said the previous government appointed and dismissed DCEs as and when it deemed fit although the DCEs had to get the support of the various District Assemblies before taking office.

Botwe alleged that the appointment letters of the outgoing DCEs also tasked them to implement the Manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Party.

Now that there is no NDC manifesto to implement, they cannot continue being there since we have a different manifesto.

Although the NPP believes that the position of DCE must be an elective one to enable them be accountable to the people, the government will in the short term nominate DCEs since the process of making the position an elective one require constitutional amendments, Botwe told Public Agenda.

"We cannot wait for that and as such we are going to appoint people very soon," he emphasized.

A president comes with a vision and he needs people he can work with to execute that vision, Botwe said. People would say Kufuor's Presidency failed if he is unable to implement his vision even at the grass root level.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Kwadwo Baah Wiredu has said even though the government can retain some of the out-going DCEs that can only happen after a thorough auditing had been done.

peaking on a radio Ghana programme recently, the minister said one factor that will guarantee a re-appointment of the DCEs is the popularity and support they enjoy amongst their people.