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0 Former Cal Bank CEO, Frank Adu Jnr, has cautioned President John Mahama to pay close attention to how his appointees perform in office.
The renowned banker warns that political loyalty without meritocracy will cripple the ability to deliver on campaign promises.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Monday, June 30, Mr. Adu said the early signs are positive, particularly with the recent stability of the cedi, but stressed that challenges lie ahead if underperformance is tolerated within the administration.
“It is early days yet,” he said. “I think every time there’s a change of government, the government seems to have a period of some honeymoon period, so to speak. And people are accommodating, etcetera. I think that President Mahama made promises, and the thing for him to do is to try and keep the promises.”
Pointing to current economic conditions, he noted, “Luckily, we’ve had some stability, particularly in the currency. There’s been an appreciation of the cedi, and it seems to have stabilised around ¢11-12, so it allows for planning, etc. Hopefully that continues.”
But Mr. Adu was clear that the test for the Mahama administration lies beyond macroeconomic indicators.
“The difficulty is in keeping those promises, and the kind of political system we are operating in this country basically forces contestants to make promises, and then when they come, they have a difficulty meeting those promises, and that is where he begins to have the challenge.”
He pointed to a structural problem with political appointments that undermines performance.
“President Mahama has to be mindful of how his appointees deliver. It’s going to be very difficult, and one of the reasons being the processes you go through to become president and then the appointments you make.”
According to him, the lack of accountability among political appointees is a long-standing issue.
“I have not seen or heard in the past probably 18 years, any minister of a sector or a president criticise or question an appointee for non-performance. And you know why? It’s because all these appointees are political affiliates.”
He explained that performance is often overlooked because of campaign loyalty.
“If the person, let’s say any of the parastatals — let’s say VRA or ECG — the CEO, being a political appointee, is not performing, now, this political appointee was part of the whole campaign train of the president when he was campaigning.
“He puts him there, and the person not performing, it’s very difficult for the sector minister, who is also a broker appointee, to take on… the MD of VRA for non-performance.”
Instead of confronting failure, ministers often defend it.
“Anytime there’s a problem in any sector, any ministry, you find the party, the minister defending the position or the mismanagement or whatever it is. I have never come across any minister who queries, criticises, says, ‘I will have you fired’, or fires the CEO of a state… That is a problem.”
He blamed the system’s failings on the absence of merit-based appointments.
“What we are practising is not a meritocracy. The more noise you make whilst in the position, the likely your chance of becoming a CEO or ambassador or a minister or something like that. That is not a meritocracy.”
Mr. Adu warned that without accountability, no government can perform.
“Once you have a situation like that, then it’s going to be very difficult for the government in power to perform. If you are not held to account for your deeds as a minister or as a political appointee, it means that you can underperform.”
He added that this issue is not unique to one particular administration.
“That happened under Akufo-Addo. You take the SIGA companies, all these parastatals — which one of them performed? Maybe SIC, they paid dividends, etcetera.”
