There is simmering tension at the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources (MSWR) as the Chief Director, Mr Noah Tumfo, is accused of promoting sub-professionals to occupy positions without recourse to the laid down procedures as captured in the administrative instructions of the Civil Service.
According to a petition filed with the Head of Civil Service and sighted by the Ghanaian Times, most of the persons promoted by the Chief Director lacked the requisite qualifications to occupy those positions.
The petitioner, Mr Thomas Attoh Donkor, listed the promotion of Mr Sampson Akwetey, a Chief Environmental Health Technologist to the position of Acting Director of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) as one of the recent disregards for the administrative procedures.
Apart from Mr Akwetey’s promotion, the Chief Director is also alleged by the petitioner to have appointed eight more sub-professionals to other positions they were not qualified to occupy.
The eight include; Kwaku Quansah, promoted from Chief Environmental Health Technologist to Principal Environmental Health Analyst, Tony Floyd Tsekpetse, from Principal Environmental Health Officer to Environmental Health Analyst, Patience Esi Boni, from Senior Environmental Health Officer to Environmental Health Analyst and Charlotte Adjei, from Environmental Health Officer to Environmental Health Analyst.
The rest Amanda Enyonam Vitto-Quao from Assistant Environmental Health Technologist to Assistant Environmental Health Analyst, Bright Annang Baah, from Assistant Environmental Health Technologist to Assistant Environmental Health Analyst, Thomas Edinam Mawutse from Assistant Environmental Health Technologist to Assistant Environmental Health Analyst and Jonathan Akwabeng Manu from Assistant Environmental Health Technologist to Assistant Environmental Health Analyst.
The petitioner said it was not clear the process followed to upgrade the eight officers from their positions as sub-professionals to the professional grade.
“It would be a very bad precedent in the Environmental Health and Sanitation Class and the Civil Service as a whole if this frivolous, illegal and fraudulent upgrading is not corrected since it cannot happen in any of the public services,” the petition said.
According to the petition section 88 to 90 of the year 2020 Administrative Instructions for the Civil Service are explicitly clear on the processes to be followed in upgrading officers from sub-professionals to professionals.
It is the contention of the petitioner that all the nine promotions were done through frivolous, illegal and fraudulent means and was largely spearheaded by the Chief Director.
When contacted, however, Mr Tumfo denied any wrong doing in the promotion of the listed personnel to occupy their current positions.
He told the Ghanaian Times that every single one of the promotions listed were undertaken in line with due process and no laid down procedure of the Civil Service was either violated or sidestepped.
Mr Tumfo noted that the determination of placements of officers in the Civil Service was outside the purview of his office and that they could only work with documents properly determined and available for management of staff in the service.
He explained that in accordance with the Civil Service Act, (1993) PNDCL 327 and the Administrative Instructions of the Ghana Civil Service, 1999, it was the Minister who determined the leadership of the directorate based on advice on the seniority as determined by available documents.
On the specific allegations of the promotion of the nine, the Chief Director said all of them were duly qualified stressing that “The officer who has petitioned was promoted to Principal Environmental Health Engineer and further considered for Chief Environmental Health Engineer when the scheme of service had not been operationalised and officers in the class had been denied promotions even after interviews because of this.”
Mr Tumfo noted that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) in a letter No. D/SCR.3/Vol.28/2 dated 15th July, 2022 determined the salary scale for the various grades and placed the existing staff in the Environmental Health and Sanitation Class of the Ghana Civil Service accordingly and also requested the Ministry of Finance to effect the payment of their salaries.
He noted that the Ministry of Finance in response to the FWSC per letter No. BD/ CMU/22/08/Sal.1 dated 2nd September 2022 requested the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to effect the changes as approved.
Meanwhile efforts to get the Head of Civil Service to respond to the issues raised in the petition proved futile as the new head was yet to take office.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
