Public expresses confidence in President Kufuor's government

President John Agyekum Kufuor's administration has been commended for stabilising the political situation and for establishing public confidence in its capacity to administer the country.

It also received commendation for establishing new structures to deal with areas such as women's affairs, primary and girl-child education and private sector development.

These were views expressed by a cross-section of the public in Ho on the 100 days of performance of the New Patriotic Party government.

The President was, however, called upon to focus his attention more on tackling internal problems, rather than on international politics.

Mrs Hillary Gbedemah, a legal practitioner, called on the government to expedite action on the establishment of the proposed Reconciliation Commission to deal with issues of alleged arbitrariness of the present and the past.

She also suggested that the Commission be made to determine the circumstances under which officials could be asked to proceed on leave, pending investigations into their stewardship to remove suspicions of witch-hunting by government.

The people also called upon the government to consult the public more often before taking decisions on national issues.

They commended the government for continuing with major projects and programmes initiated by the previous government, which, they said, are a positive departure from the past practice where such initiatives were abandoned.

Some public servants were, however, unhappy with the lack of openness on the part of government in the determination of salary levels.

They called for a review of the Social Security Pension Scheme to fall in line with the Cap 30 Pension Scheme.

The people further advised the government to abide by the 1992 constitution in dealing with officials suspected of malfeasance and to thoroughly investigate the performance of public officials before coming out publicly with press statements.

They also said they expect government to initiate pragmatic and realistic measures to create jobs, provide free education and abolish the cash and carry system as promised in its electioneering campaigns.

The people also called for a revamping of the agricultural sector, which, they said, was taking too long.