Let’s attach more seriousness to the vetting of ministers designate

The Appointments Committee of Parliament begins the grilling of the President’s nominees for the various ministerial portfolios today.

The vetting is a very needful and important exercise because it aims at bringing out the best in the nominees and also adequately preparing them for the task ahead.

It is also intended to enable both Parliament and the public to assess the men and women who have been nominated to assist the President to run the affairs of state.

The vetting of nominees had, in the past, attracted retinues of chiefs from nominees’ home towns, as well as hordes of supporters from their constituencies if the nominees are Members of Parliament.

That practice had reduced such a serious exercise to partisan politics and a contest between the Appointments Committee and the nominees, with the nominees being cheered on when they were perceived to have answered questions well.

Although this might be coming late, we pray the nominees to stay away their chiefs and people who might want to travel all the way from their communities to come and cheer them on, as this merely serves to distract from the whole exercise.

The vetting exercise is only a job interview, and if the nominees would not invite sympathisers to cheer them on at job interviews, then they should dissuade any group of persons who may want to be present at the vetting from doing so.

The vetting of ministers designate is a very serious exercise that aims at enabling the government to take on only the best candidates and ought to be approached with all the candidness that it deserves.

The Daily Graphic believes that the exercise serves a very useful purpose, especially as it seeks to prevent nominees from taking the trust reposed in them by the President for granted.

Therefore, the members of the Appointments Committee will do the country a lot of disservice if they assume that the ministers designate are already substantive ministers and simply wave them on when they appear before the committee.

The Daily Graphic knows that some of the nominees were ministers in the Kufuor government, but that does not mean they should not be thoroughly taken through the process.

They must be properly appraised based on their understanding of current trends to ascertain whether they are adequately prepared to take up the responsibilities that go with their appointments.

Also, while we urge Parliament to hasten the vetting process to enable the new government to take shape and begin its work, we pray the august House to err on the side of caution, so that the nominees are grilled thoroughly.

There is no point in passing nominees who show, during their assessment, that they are not ready or capable to lead the ministries they have been appointed to or when there are pertinent issues that need to be dealt with before they are cleared.

We congratulate the nominees of the President and urge them to acquit themselves creditably and also expect that the Appointments Committee will treat the exercise with all the seriousness that it deserves.