The Board Chairman of Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Professor Christopher Ameyaw Ekumfi, has expressed concerns that the New Patriotic Party changing its congress time to 24 months will inconvenience the party when in government.
The Party, according to its constitution, holds the congress to elect national executives 11 months prior to the general elections slated for December 7.
However, Prof. Ameyaw Ekumfi acknowledging that the 11 months stipulated for the exercise has its own challenges, believes that shifting it to 24 months earlier will not favour the party.
“The argument is that when you go for the 11, there is usually not enough time for organization towards the [general] elections−true. But when you are in government, your performance is up to somewhere in January 6.
“Even after the elections, there is the transition period where you are still in charge. So if you go too early, government machinery may experience weaknesses: your cabinet may not be performing efficiently because coming along with that process [24 months], some may have to leave.”
That said, Prof. Ekumfi does not discount the competencies of persons who may be elected in the process to replace occupants of the various positions. Rather, he said the experience needed from the staff who have been on the job for the period until the congress will be lost amid the government agenda that may be in the pipeline.
“I am not saying that persons to be elected will destroy the government, but you will be losing the one who has the experience on the job−at least even a term’s experience.”
He there proposes that the party takes a critical look at the situation to solve the challenges for its own benefits.
The PPA Board Chairman made these observations in Twi on Angel in the Morning, a show hosted on Kumasi-based Angel FM by Kwame Tanko with support from Kwamena Sam Biney on Friday December 17, 2021.
His comments come in wake of the Party’s National Delegates Conference which is expected to come off on Sunday December 19, 2021.
The conference serves a platform on which the party deliberates on issues bothering its operations and its governance.
Among these is the amendments of its constitution where persons with proposals are given room to defend their ideas for the party’s adoption or rejection after extensive deliberations on them.
