NPP Communications Director Asserts Controller and Accountant-General’s Eligibility for NPP Primary Despite Resignation Calls

Richard Ahiagbah, the Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has emphasized that there is no hindrance for the Controller and Accountant-General, Kwasi Kwaning-Bosompem, to participate in the upcoming parliamentary primary of the NPP. According to Ahiagbah, Mr. Kwaning-Bosompem’s unique position as a government appointee, rather than a traditional civil servant, sets him apart from the regulations governing civil servants.

In an interview on the Key Points on TV3, Ahiagbah commented on the calls for Kwaning-Bosompem’s resignation by stating, “Where he sits he is not in a true sense a civil servant, he is a government appointee, so he is not in the normal sense a civil servant serving the nation. His situation is unique; nothing precludes him from running on the ticket of the NPP.”

This statement comes in response to the demand for the Controller and Accountant-General’s resignation by the Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG). Isaac Bampoe Addo, Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, had asserted that, according to Civil Service regulations in Ghana, no civil servant is allowed to actively engage in partisan politics while still in active service.

Bampoe Addo pointed to past cases where civil servants engaging in open partisan politics faced dismissals and insisted that Kwaning-Bosompem should also leave office. The Controller and Accountant-General had picked nomination forms for the NPP’s parliamentary primaries in the Akim Swedru Constituency, prompting discussions about the constitutional implications of his involvement.

While CLOGSAG cited a Supreme Court ruling on the Neutrality Act of 2017, Ahiagbah’s perspective highlights the distinction between government appointees and traditional civil servants, asserting that the former category is not bound by the same restrictions regarding political participation.