New Directive: No one should be in acting capacity in public sector for 6 months

Employment and Labour Relations Minister has directed public institutions to guard against appointing people in acting capacity for over six months.

“No chief executive in the country should be in an acting position for more than sixth months or at worst one year”. Mr. Haruna Iddrisu warned.

The Minister who was speaking at the commissoning of the National Pensioners Regulatory regional office in Kumasi is worried many chief executives and managing directors who act in positions of trust end up being changed eventually.

“It affects the effective operations of any business,” says Gordon Newlove Asamoah, Executive Director for Policy think-tank, Centre for Economic and Business Research.

He is worried, “In an acting position, you are not too sure whether to implement a policy that will inure to the benefit of the business and for which period because in terms of vision it may not be in sync with whoever is coming to replace the acting person”.

The Power Ministries has suffered a similar fate during the peak of the power crisis in 2015.

According to other industry players like the Head of Policy at the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), an independent think-tank, such persons are almost always put in an uncontrolled situation.

Mr. Ishmael Ackah observes they (such managers) are compelled to act in certain ways or take decisions to please appointing authorities (which might not auger well for the good of the business) in order to get confirmed.

According to Haruna Iddrisu, such practice is unacceptable within known and acceptable practises in the public service.

“I expect Boards, councils, and commissions which has a dual role to support the president in this endeavour.”