Transition team needs congenial atmosphere for business

There are only 11 weekdays for the Joint Transition Team to do its work if the time set for the completion of its work is January 5, 2017 and the Christmas holidays and weekends are factored in as non-working days.

Last Monday, 31 handover notes were submitted to the transition team to begin its work in earnest, bringing the total so far submitted to 39.

That places a heavy burden on the joint team, as the members, especially those on the side of the incoming government, will have to carefully scrutinise the reports to have any concerns addressed before the January 7, 2017 inauguration of the new government.

Aside from that, the incoming government’s team, at the maiden meeting of the team last Wednesday, raised many issues, including the alleged giving out of fresh contracts, recruitments into the security services and the public service, among other things, which they asked the government team to address.

Although the Spokesperson for the government team, Ms Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, explained that the recruitment of persons into the security services might refer to an ongoing recruitment into the Ghana Armed Forces which had existed before the December 7 elections, she noted that the rest were a surprise to the government team, which meant they were not aware of any such alleged happenings.

The Daily Graphic calls for some investigations to ascertain the veracity of those allegations, so that both sides will be satisfied and continue with the transition process in a congenial atmosphere.

The leader of the incoming government’s team, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, hit the nail on the head when he stated on Monday: “We don’t want to get into acrimony because of transition; it doesn’t help Ghana because our image out there is relevant. The press should also bear in mind that our image out there is relevant. So as much as possible we will go to work through consultation.”

We believe that judging from the time available and the work on hand for the joint team, it needs a very congenial atmosphere to work to ensure a very smooth transition as both sides have affirmed.

The Daily Graphic is pleased that the joint team has agreed on a consultation mechanism by which it will engage each other if there are any issues emanating from the handover notes or any other matters that pertain to the transition.

We urge the joint team to, as much as possible, try and work cordially with a common purpose, which is working to ensure a smooth transition from the current government to the incoming one.

That calls for tact and tenacity of purpose and a focus on ensuring that the right thing is done. But this calls for frankness, truthfulness and transparency, so that the country will become the beneficiary of the work of the transition team.

We also urge circumspection in publishing the findings and doing same through the right channels, so that, indeed, the transitional process will not be viewed as a witch-hunting exercise.

Above all, we ask for thoroughness and diligence in the work of the joint team, so that nothing is left to chance.