STAY OUT OF PARTISAN POLITICS ...Akologu urges heads of MMDAs (PAGE 13, OCT 28, 2010)

The Minister of Information, Mr John Tia Akologu, has re-echoed an advise to heads of ministries, departments, and agencies to stay out of partisan politics and to be as politically neutral as possible.
He reiterated that when public and civil servants openly participated in political activities they compromised the objectivity of their offices.
Mr Akologu therefore appealed to them to be committed, loyal and impartial in the discharge of their duties.
The minister made the call when he interacted with heads of departments as part of his three-day official visit of the Upper East Region to familiarise and ascertain the operations and problems of the agencies under the ministry of information.
The tour also aimed at communicating government policies and programmes to the staff of district assemblies, traditional rulers and sections of the public, as well as encourage public sector workers to put in their maximum efforts towards the attainment of the “Better Ghana” agenda.
During his interaction with the heads of departments, the Information Minister advised them not to just concentrate on their daily paperwork and filing of reports to their head offices in Accra but also open their doors to the media in the region to try to educate the public on the essence of the several interventions being put in by the government.
He said although the politician would carry the message to the people, the same message on development projects being embarked on by the government would carry more weight and meaning if delivered by the technical persons in charge of a department or an agency.
He assured the heads of departments that past vindictiveness where civil and public servants were removed from office at will had been stopped, adding that past government officials perceived to be corrupt had been sent to court for the due process to establish the said corruption.
“Even though the decisions of the courts are sometimes questionable, government has decided to abide by those decisions,” he said.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, who was present at the meeting advised heads of departments to create special budget lines for P ublic relations and media campaigns to propagate their programmes, since communication played a key role in governance.
Earlier, the minister paid a courtesy call on the Regional Minister, Mr Mark Woyongo, and the Paramount Chief of Bolgatanga, Naaba Martin Abilba.
The Regional Minister, a media man himself, lauded the media in the region for deepening the relationship that existed but expressed concern at the activities of a few especially when it came to reporting on the conflict situation in the Bawku area.
He admonished journalists who report on conflicts to base their write-ups on facts in order not to inflame passions.