Parliament Ditches Attafuah ....

— Following Ghana Palaver’s expose’

The Parliamentary Service has humiliatingly eaten humble pie and reversed its decision to appoint “Professor” Kenneth Attafuah as the Clerk of Parliament following Ghana Palaver’s expose that the former Executive Secretary of the infamous National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) was scheming to be appointed to the position with the active connivance and condonation of President Kufuor and the NPP-supported Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Ebenezer Sekyi-Hughes.

The new Clerk of Parliament is to be Mr. Emmanuel K. Anyimadu, the Deputy Clerk who was earlier dropped even though he emerged the most suitable person for the vacant position after a gruelling interview. The appointment brings to an end, threats of demonstrations against the Speaker, Mr. Ebenezer B. Sekyi-Hughes and President Kufuor by Deputy and Assistant Clerks as well as other Parliamentary staff. The two men were believed to be favouring Prof. Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah, an outsider, to take over from Mr. Kenneth E.K. Tachie, who had attained the statutory retiring age of 60.

The staff’s favourite, Mr. Anyimadu, has been with Parliament since 1993 and risen through the ranks, held various positions in the House before becoming a Deputy Clerk in-charge of Parliamentary Relations, Protocol and Public Affairs. The affable and experienced Deputy Clerk outpaced to other Deputy Clerks, John G.K Agama and Mrs. Rose Keddey, when the position was first advertised in the Daily Graphic and the Daily Guide newspapers but was almost sidelined because the leadership considered him to be too young.

However, the position was re-advertised by the Parliamentary Service Board (PSB), on the explicit directives of the Speaker to enable Prof. Attafuah, who was not interviewed because he had not applied when the position was originally advertised, to put in an application.

Prof. Attafuah, Mr. Anyimadu, Mrs. Keddey, Mr. Agama and many others applied for the position after the re-advertisement, and were short-listed for interview. Nine people in all were interviewed and at the end of what insiders described as an exhausting exercise, Prof. Attafuah, a criminologist and legal practitioner failed to shine.

Mr. Anyimadu had once again emerged the winner and will assume office on July 2, this year after Mr. Tachie, who also rose through the ranks and mixed well with both sides of the political divide, would have had his much anticipated send-off party.

It is not clear, whether Prof. Attafuah, who allegedly but unsuccessfully lobbied some known MPs in the House, will continue with his teaching job at GIMPA, go into private legal practice or the government might find some position for him. Born in Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region on June 12, 1959, the incoming clerk holds a Masters Degree and Post-graduate Diploma and Certificate in Public Administration. The father of four and avowed Adventist also has a B.A. Hons Social Science (Law and History) degree.

Founder and Leader of Voices of Democracy, the Parliamentary Choir, Mr. Anyimadu was once a senior prefect for Techiman Secondary School, for S.D.A. Middle School and Timponem L/A Primary School all in Techiman. Reading, researching and watching football are his hobbies.

"The Ghana Palaver" Expose

The Ghana Palaver story that caused the Parliamentary volte-face was carried in our issue Vol. 13 No. 63. It read as follows:

“Sources close to the Presidency and Parliament House speak of a grand design by the top leadership of the two arms of government, the Executive and the Legislature, to foist Dr. Kenneth Attafuah on the House as the new Clerk of Parliament.

According to the sources, this will be Dr. Attafuah’s reward for the dubious role he played as Secretary to the erstwhile National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), and especially his role in getting immunity for criminal convict lawyer Chris Asher Jnr to appear before the Commission to give monstrous hearsay evidence against former President J. J. Rawlings, Founder of the NDC.

Dr. Attafuah, a former NDC sympathiser now turned NPP apologist, fell out with the late Chairman of the NRC, Justice Amua-Sekyi, in the twilight days of the NRC and was made to “proceed on leave” at the critical time when the Commission was writing its report. Whilst working at the NRC, it was revealed that he had once collected double salary for a period at his former place of employment, the CHRAJ. His explanation of the double-payment did not appear to convince anybody.

After the NRC had wound up, Dr. Attafuah found himself at GIMPA where he was instantly made a Professor and Head of the School of Governance and Leadership. He stayed at GIMPA for less than six months and found his way out of Ghana to a comparatively high-paying UN job with the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Cash-strapped and with donors reluctant to release any more money for its operations, the Sierra Leone Commission has wound up and Dr. Attafuah has found himself back in Ghana.

Our information is that GIMPA’s Rector Professor Stephen Adei is livid with the manner of Dr. Attafuah’s departure and will not have him back, hence his NPP backers are scheming to foist him on Parliament whose Clerk, Mr. K.E.K. Tachie, has reached the compulsory retiring age of 60 years and has retired, unlike the Auditor-General who refuses to leave office 5 years after reaching the compulsory retiring age and has had to be dragged to court by NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia. Among a group of 8 applicants short-listed for the position, Dr. Attafuah was allegedly not the best, but the scores of an NPP member of the interview panel were so outrageously high, obviously because he or she had been instructed to do so, that it put Dr. Attafuah right at the top. The other members of the panel are said to be grumbling and silently protesting.

According to our sources, the applicants for the job were John G.K. Agama, the current Deputy Clerk, Emmanuel K. Anyimadu, a Principal Assistant Clerk, Rose Keddey, Dr. Kenneth Attafuah, Urias Amoo, Samuel Boakye, George Buadi and George Donkor.

Of the lot, Dr. Attafuah was said to be the least knowledgeable about Parliamentary procedures and processes.

The interview panel was said to comprise Hon. Darko Mensah, Hon. Alban Bagbin, Hon. Ms. Gifty Ohene Konadu, Professor Addai Dakwah of the Public Services Commission and Messrs S.A.Darkwa and K.E.K. Tachie, both former Clerks of Parliament.